Hopes dashed for life convicts in Telangana prisons awaiting amnesty on Republic Day

Hopes of life convicts in Telangana prisons who are awaiting for amnesty are dashed as the State government did not issue orders granting it.

Salman Qureshi was about seven years old when his father Mohammed Shahabuddin Qureshi was hauled by the police on the charges of killing his wife. Eventually in 2008, the father was convicted and sentenced to life. Mr. Salman was produced as a witness to testify against his father, and he did. He is now 23 years old and married. Mr. Salman wants his father back with him.

“My father has been in the prison for the past 15 years, save a few months when he was out on parole,” he shares. Due to the absence of parents, he had to stay with grandparents, and could not complete schooling.

“I have to support my younger brother too. I am sick of living on my own without any parental guidance. My father has been punished long enough. He is now a changed man and working in the Chanchalguda prison’s petrol pump,” Mr. Salman says.

His father has spent 15 years in prison, and got a remission of over five years, which translates into completion of 20 years’ prison sentence.

Mr. Salman is only one among the many people waiting for the return of their kin from the prison. Their hopes about the customary grant of amnesty on the occasion of the Republic Day have been dashed as Telangana government has not issued any order so far towards this.

As per the data collected by the Human Rights Forum (HRF), a total 569 life convicts have been serving term in 14 State prisons for varying durations, of whom 276 have completed at least 10 years of prison term exclusive of remission. Of these, 19 have completed 25 years of conviction, and 62 have completed 20 years. Six women prisoners have completed 13 years of actual sentence excluding remission.

“My husband would have got amnesty in 2020, but he was short by one month in completing the required prison term. Last August, his name was included, but the governor rejected the amnesty granted by the State government. We had a lot of hopes this time, as it is a new Government,” said Dasari Lakshmi, another woman from Palvancha of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, whose husband Dasari Veeraiah has been in the jail for the past 14 years, on the charges of murder during a feud related to farmland boundaries. With husband in prison, and no means for survival, she had to struggle hard to bring up her three children