Life convict from Puzhal turns new leaf with 1,064

V Muthuselvan (27), a life convict at Puzhal prison, studied the fourth group, prison authorities said.Muthuselvan, prison authorities say, believes that the worst phase of his life was over as he had shown enthusiasm and determination to study hard. He was accused of a grave crime and was made to serve the maximum prison sentence.  

Muthuselvan, who owned a provision store at Nerkunram, Maduravoyal, was convicted of murdering a 67-year-old Jayalakshmi in a bid to steal her four-and-ahalf sovereign chain in 2011. He slit the throat of the woman and kept her body in a freezer in the shop. Prosecution had proved that the accused stole her jewellery and sold it to pay his debts. The prosecution charge was that Muthuselvan, who incurred losses after organising a Deepavali chit fund, committed the murder to clear his debts. The murder came to light 29 days later as people complained about a foul smell emanating from Muthuselvan’s shop. 

Police arrested Muthuselvan in a different robbery case and when he was put behind bars, the shop remained closed. When the freezer in his shop stopped working, the dead body started decaying inside, emanating the foul smell. Muthuselvan finally confessed to murdering the woman for jewellery. The Tiruvallur court, which conducted the trial, considered it as one of the rarest of the rare cases and awarded him the death penalty. 

“Muthuselvan now has a deep sense of remorse for the crimes he had committed. He is a well-behaved man and wants to build his life afresh after being released from prison. He studied hard and scored good marks, all because of his determination,” a prison official said. He has already completed more than three years in the prison and if he gets a remission, he may have to undergo imprisonment for another five years. Including Muthuvel, 95 prisoners from all Central prisons wrote the Class 12 examinations as part of the prisoner rehabilitation programme. In total, 83 of them passed with flying colours. Among those who passed, three life convicts secured marks about 1,050.

All the 15 inmates of the Tiruchy central prison came out in flying colours in the class 12 examinations whose results were declared on Friday. According to the authorities, as many as 15 inmates of Tiruchy jail appeared for the examination and all of them cleared it. Interestingly, four inmates scored above 1000 -  Senthil Kumar (1052), Swaminathan (1038), Yoganathan (1022), all life convicts and remand prisoner Daniel Raj (1019), while other inmates managed to secure a decent score. 

Meanwhile, eighteen of the 22 inmates of the Coimbatore and Salem central prisons have cleared the class 12 board examinations. Four of them have scored over 80 per cent. Of the nine inmates who appeared for the exam from the Salem jail eight have cleared. In Madurai central prison, nine out of 11 prisoner candidates have passed the class 12 examinations. Vijay Kandipan, a life convict, had topped with 970 marks. However, this year there was not single candidate from Palayamkottai jail registered to appear for the examination.