Man sentenced in graft case now in dementia, kins seek mercy

The graft case conviction of an 81-year-old former official, now laid up in a state of dementia, has thrown up the question whether he would be sent to jail.

S Ramabhadran Nair, who was Chairman of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in 1980s, was last week sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court along with a former Minister and a contractor.

Nair's family members yesterday submitted a plea to Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan seeking his intervention for getting remission of the punishment considering his condition.

Nair was awarded the punishment along with the then power Minister R Blakrishna Pillai and a contractor in the Edamalayayar case relating to corruption in awarding contracts for a hydro electric project in 1982. The relatives said Nair had been bedridden at his residence here after he suffered a head injury during a road accident some years back.

"He does not even know that he has been given jail term as for the last several years he has not been able to recognise anybody around him", Nair's relatives said.

According to legal circles, one of the options before Nair is to submit a clemency petition to the President to exempt him from the punishment in view of his situation. The prosecution case against Nair was that he was part of a criminal conspiracy that caused loss of Rs 2 crore to KSEB by awarding contracts for power tunnel and surge shaft of the project.