Patna, Apr 25 (IANS): With the Nitish Kumar government deciding to release 27 dreaded criminals, the CPI-ML, which is part of the Bihar government, has decided to sit on a dharna in front of the Chief Minister's Office in Patna on April 28.

The party believes that the government has adopted a discriminatory approach in releasing prisoners on the basis of good conduct. Kumar Parvej, the media in-charge of the CPI-ML, said why is the Nitish Kumar government silent on the TADA prisoners who have been in jail for more than 20 years in the Bhadasi case of Arwal district.

"The unfortunate Bhadasi incident happened in 1988 where 14 innocent persons belonging to the Dalit and EBC communities were booked under TADA. They were sentenced on August 4, 2003 to life terms and they have already been in jail for more than 20 years. If we include Parihar (Remission), their jail term reaches more than 30 years," Parvej said.

"Among the 14, 8 have died due to illness while serving the life term and 6 are still alive. They are identified as Dr Jagdish Yadav, Chumaran Bhagat, Arvind Chaudhary, Ajit Saw, Shyam Chaudhary and Laxman Saw. Dr Jagdish, Chumaran Bhagat and Laxman Saw are seriously ill and admitted in hospital during their jail term," Parvej said.

"The Patna high court had released an inmate named Tribhuwan Sharma in 2020. He was booked under TADA. The state government can take reference of this case and release these six prisoners. These inmates are more than 60 years old. Recently an inmate, Madhav Chaudhary, died due to illness on April 8, 2023. He was 62 years old," Parvej added.