High Court grants leave for ex-Army officer

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the jail authorities in Puzhal prison to grant 15 days’ leave to Lieutenant Colonel K. Ramaraj, a retired Army officer and life convict lodged in prison for more than three years, for treatment in a private eye hospital in Madurai. Dilshan, a 13-year-old slum-dweller, was shot dead by Ramaraj while the boy was picking almonds from a tree on the compound of the Island Grounds Army residential complex in Chennai in 2011.

Now, Ramaraj’s wife, Rukumani, submitted in her petition that he had been suffering from cataract in both eyes, had lost 60 per cent of his eyesight and could not recover as he was a diabetic. Counsel for the petitioner V.V. Sairam submitted that while working in the Army, Ramaraj deposited Rs 50,000 in the ex-serviceman’s contributory health scheme and was entitled to medical benefits to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh.

Rukumani, who hails from Madurai, wanted her husband to be treated there. She sent a representation to the jail authorities, seeking his transfer to the Central prison in Madurai. She also sought ordinary leave of 30 days for her husband. Opposing the plea, government advocate R. Prabhakar submitted that the medical officer of Puzhal prison had recommended that Ramaraj be referred to the Royapettah government hospital.

The bench, comprising justices Aruna Jagadeesan and S. Vaidyanathan, said, “The petitioner’s demand to shift her husband to Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, for treatment is fully justified. It is open to the petitioner or her husband to make a representation to the authorities concerned to shift him from Puzhal prison to Central prison in Madurai and jail authorities shall pass appropriate orders for retention of the convict permanently in Madurai within 48 hours from the receipt of the representation,” the bench added.