August 9
INDIA:
Rajiv murder: Man on death row turns editor
One of the convicted conspirators in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case,
'Chinna' Santhan - whose mercy petition before the President is still
pending - has turned editor of a prison magazine.
Santhan edits a Tamil quarterly magazine Sirai Pookkal (Prison Flowers),
which was launched by prisoners of the Vellore Central jail in June. The
magazine credit describes him as Santhan, death-row prisoner.
The magazine containing articles, poems, short stories and even medical
notes has been brought out on the request of the inmates, who wanted an
avenue to prove their literary skills.
"It was a revelation that there was so much talent embedded in these
people. And one can discover an underpinning of pathos in almost every
piece," said Dr K. Soundarvalli of IGNOU.
Vellore jail superintendent K. Ramachandran said he readily agreed to the
request of the inmates for a literary magazine since it would be an outlet
for many of their pent-up emotions.
Santhan, who has done a certificate course in food and nutrition from
IGNOU, opted out of BCA wanting to concentrate on literary matters. The
other three convicts in the Rajiv case Murugan, Perarivalan and Nalini are
pursuing their BCA and MCA studies with IGNOU. While Nalini's death
sentence has been commuted to life-term, the other 2 along with Santhan
are still awaiting presidential orders on their petition to commute their
death penalty to life imprisonment.
When state human rights commission chairman Justice S. Sambandam visited
the prison recently, the four prisoners had requested copies of
autobiographies of Gandhi, Mandela and the Bhagavad Gita. "Seeing their
keenness I sent them at my own expense. I've promised to send any other
book they would like to read," said Justice Sambandam.
(source: Hindustan Times)
