Kannur: T K Rajeesh, the fourth accused in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case, has been granted parole for 20 days, with instructions to return to jail by January 10. This is the second time in three months that Rajeesh has been allowed parole.

The parole comes with strict conditions prohibiting him from entering Kannur and Kozhikode districts. Earlier, Rajeesh had been granted 30 days parole from August 1, during which he received treatment at the Kannur Ayurveda Hospital for over a month and a half before returning to jail on December 7.

The repeated parole grants follow revelations that DIG Vinod Kumar of the prison allegedly accepted bribes to grant parole to convicts, including Kodi Suni, also implicated in the T P Chandrasekharan case. Vigilance officials reportedly found that DIG Vinod Kumar was taking payments from prisoners’ relatives in exchange for parole and other prison privileges.

Rajeesh, a Kannur native, has listed an address in Ernakulam district, and his current parole is restricted to this district.

Another accused, Kodi Suni, was granted 60 days of parole over seven months, with three separate parole periods issued by the prison department between December 2023 and July 2024.

The case has also sparked controversy after the inclusion of T P Chandrasekharan murder convicts in the list of prisoners eligible for special remission of sentence as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, raising questions about fairness and transparency in parole and remission decisions.