Thiruvananthapuram: Prisoners are normally those who are in the wrong place for the wrong reasons. But a Kerala techie who was sentenced this week to death for a double murder, has turned just the right person for jail authorities in the state capital. The seasoned IT expert has been put in charge of the prison’s computerisation works.
Death row convicts in India typically spend years in prison, and therefore the jail should be able to use Mathew’s tech expertise for a considerable time.
Nino Mathew, 40, and his colleague Anushanti, 32, were sentenced this week to death and a double life sentence respectively, for a double-murder committed in April 2014. Mathew, a married man and a father of one child, fell in love with Anushanti, wife of one Lijeesh, and the duo planned to do away with Lijeesh and his daughter Swastika, 4, to live the rest of their lives together.
Accordingly, Mathew reached Lijeesh’s house on April 16, 2014 and hacked to death Lijeesh’s mother and Swastika who were at home, and waited to murder Lijeesh. When Lijeesh arrived, Mathew threw chilli powder at his face and hacked him, but Lijeesh managed to escape and based on his statements, police were able to nab Mathew and Anushanti the same day.
Local media reported that Mathew, who is convict No. 975 at the Poojapura Central Jail here, continues to have an IT job, quite like the one he did at a company in the Technopark campus. He is presently in charge of computerisation work of the jail canteen, a job that he was entrusted with when he spent four months at the prison as an undertrial prisoner.
In place of his starched and smart-looking attire while at the Technopark, complete with the ubiquitous identity tag of techies, Mathew now wears prisoner’s clothes and carries the convict ID number. Otherwise, he is busy at the computer terminal just as he was during his career in an IT company in the role of a project manager.
Reports indicate that he is well-behaved in prison. And the jail authorities are pleased to have someone like Mathew helping them out in computerisation of the jail facilities, because it would have cost them a packet to hire someone of Mathew’s expertise to do the job.
Mathew’s paramour, Anushanti has been housed at the women’s jail, but is yet to be given any specific job. Anushanti was handed a double death sentence by the Thiruvananthapuram Principal Sessions Court judge, V. Shersy. The court observed that by colluding to murder her own little daughter, Anushanti was a “disgrace to motherhood”.
