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The smile on her face was a cold one. Seventeen years behind bars had made her mind so frozen that she has only blurred memories of the past. But stepping out of prison to the outside world was like a dream that came true.
Vijayamma, a 42-year-old inmate of the Women’s Jail at Attakkulangara, was released on parole on Wednesday for the first time after she was sentenced to undergo life-term in a murder case.
“I am happy that I can go outside the prison. But as my husband was not given parole, I cannot fully enjoy my happiness,” said Vijayamma when she came out of the jail.
As Vijayamma and her husband Balakrishnan had no relatives to take interest in them, it was through the efforts of ‘Ashwasa Bhavan’, a Kottayam-based organisation working for prisoners and their family members, that Vijayamma finally got an opportunity to go to the world outside and its volunteers were present from the morning itself to take her.
But their attempts to get parole for Balakrishnan, who was also convicted along with Vijayamma, were in vain. “We had done everything possible to get parole for Balakrishnan also, but it did not work out,” said Anina Joseph, secretary, Ashwasa Bhavan.
Vijayamma and Balakrishnan, belonging to Thodupuzha, were convicted in 1997 in a case in which the husband and wife of the house at Pampadi in Kottayam where they were working as servants were murdered. But when asked about the case, Vijayamma could not recollect what had happened and only uttered some bits from her memory which were contradictory.
“At the time she was housed in the jail, she was very active in all programmes, especially in dance. But as years passed, the life in jail affected her mental health and sometimes she shows symptoms of abnormalities,” said A Nazeera Beevi, Women’s Jail superintendent.
Vijayamma was sanctioned parole for one month, which she will spend at Ashwasa Bhavan. Balakrishnan, who had earlier been housed in Central Prison, Poojappura, was shifted to Central Prison, Viyyur, recently. When Vijayamma expressed her wish to see her husband, Anina Joseph consoled her saying that she would take her to Viyyur.
Though the prison authorities took up the case of Vijayamma before the Jail Advisory Board to recommend for her release, it did not work as one of the victims of Vijayamma’s crime was a woman.
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