Forest brigand Veerappan’s aide and accused in the 1993 Palar bomb blast, Jnanaprakash, was released from Mysuru central jail on Tuesday.
Jnanaprakash (68), serving life imprisonment, was suffering from cancer and was released by the Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds on November 26.
Advocate P Baburaj on Monday submitted an application in Chamarajanagara district and sessions court to release Jnanaprakash on orders of the Supreme Court.
After receiving the surety of two persons and a ₹5 lakh bond, the court ordered the Mysuru central jail superintendent to release the accused.
According to police documents, Jnanaprakash, Veerappan, Simon, Bilavendran and Meese Madaiah were accused in the blast in which 22 police and forest personnel were killed on April 8, 1993, near Palar bridge between Male Mahadeshwara hills and Mettur in Tamil Nadu.
The accused, Simon, detonated a landmine while a police van belonging to a special task force jointly formed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to catch Veerappan. The blast killed 22 people.
The Tamil Nadu STF chief K Gopala Krishnan were also seriously injured in the blast.
{{/usCountry}}The Tamil Nadu STF chief K Gopala Krishnan were also seriously injured in the blast.
{{/usCountry}}After the blast, Karnataka STF, headed by Shankar Bidari, registered a case under TADA against 124 persons and managed to arrest four accused after three months.
The Mysuru Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court convicted all the accused in 1997 and awarded the death penalty.
Jnanaprakash, a native of Martalli in Chamarajanagar district, and three others moved an appeal to the Supreme Court to reduce the punishment. In 2014, the apex court reduced the death penalty to life imprisonment.
Forest brigand Veerappan was killed on October 18, 2004, by Tamil Nadu police in an encounter. The other two accused, Simon and Bilavendran, died while serving imprisonment in jail. Another accused, Meesekara Madaiah, is in jail.
“We have appealed to the Supreme Court for bail considering the health condition of the convict. The court accepted our request and ordered bail on humanitarian grounds,” Advocate P Baburaj told reporters.
He said Jnanaprakash was diagnosed with lung cancer one and a half years ago and underwent chemotherapy treatment at Kidwai hospital in Bengaluru.
“I am being treated at Kidwai hospital. When I went to jail, all three children were too young. The court granted permission to stay with them in my last days,” Jnanaprakash told reporters.
He said he had taken up weaving and worked as a watchman in jail, but due to deteriorating health conditions, he stopped working for two years.