The Madras High Court today dismissed as withdrawn, a petition seeking the production and release of John David, serving life imprisonment for the 1996 murder of a first year medical student. The petition's mother J Esther said that at the time of murder her son was 19-years-old and 20 years when convicted in 1998. She submitted that as per the Tamil Nadu Borstal Schools Act and a ruling of the Supreme Court, "adolescent offenders" had to be detained in a Borstal School only upto 23 years of age. Therefore, he could not be sent to prison to serve the remaining part of the sentence.
Hence, the detention of her son, who had crossed the age of 23 years, was illegal, the petitioner claimed. On March 11, 1998, a Cuddalore District Sessions Judge had sentenced David, a second-year medical student to a double life imprisonment for murdering Pon Navarasu, son of former Madras University Vice-Chancellor Dr P K Ponnusamy. David was, however, absolved of the crime by the Madras High Court on October 5, 2001. On April 20 last the Supreme court overturned the High Court order and restored the trial court's verdict. Recording an endorsement by the petitioner's counsel withdrawing the petition with the liberty to raise the plea before the appropriate court, a Division Bench comprising Justices C Nagappan and M Satyanarayanan dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
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