Ripper Jayanandan lives, thanks to National Law University project

Kochi: With the Kerala High Court commuting the death sentence of Ripper Jayanandan the case has become the first ever interference in the country made by the Death Penalty Research Project set up by National Law University, Delhi aimed at abolishing the legally authorised killing in India. After getting reports that Jayanandan is an accused in five murder cases killing seven persons, they visited him in person and collected details. After finding that he needed legal aid they assigned a new Supreme Court lawyer almost at the fag end of the hearing of the case.

"We were doing field work in Kerala and met him as part of an interview. After talking to him, we found that he needed our legal assistance," said Anup Surendranath, who heads the project at the NLU. "What was happening in the case was actually unfair to him. The image the police built and the media attention was not helping him in the case. We then sought lawyer Renjith Marar's help, and he readily agreed." Mr Marar argued that the Puthenvelikkara murder case won't come under the rarest of rare category warranting a death penalty.

The court accepted his contention and awarded a life term without parole. "Jayanandan was in solitary confinement after his jailbreak in 2013. Since he is an accused in several cases and many lawyers were representing him, we felt that we needed to intervene in his defence properly," Mr Surendranath said. Jayanandan would soon challenge the HC order before the apex court, and the Project is set to assist him in that case also. At present, they are helping 55 death row convicts.