Mysuru, Mar 6 (DHNS): Two jail inmates were among the 18,757 candidates, who received degrees, at the 15th convocation of the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) here on Thursday.

Venkatesh and Narendra, life convicts from Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, Bengaluru, received their MA degrees in Political Science. Venkatesh has scored 61.3 per cent and Narendra has received 63.1 per cent of marks.They claimed that they have the rare distinction of being first-batch PG degree holders among the prisoners there.

A native of Seethalli in Tumakuru district, Venkatesh belongs to a family of agriculturists. He had to quit education midway while studying BA while Narendra from Lakshminarayanapura in Bengaluru discontinued his education at PUC level.

Venkatesh, who was arrested on the charge of abetting his wife’s death due to dowry in 2006, was sentenced to life imprisonment the following year. Narendra, who did his wife to death, was also awarded life imprisonment during the same period.

Venkatesh seems to have no plans to study further. But Narendra said, “I want to create awareness among the younger generation about the travails of taking law intohands,” he added.

Feat of two elders

Krishnappa, a 78-year-old retired teacher, received his MA (Sanskrit) certificate with a cash prize. Shivabasayya C Hiremath, 61, a retired Hindi professor, received his second PhD in the same subject.

A native of Chikkanayakanahalli’s Shettykere in Tumakuru district, Krishnappa retired as a government high school teacher at Didiga in Hassan district. He and his wife Huchchamma, also a teacher who retired four years ago, currently reside at Didiga.

A native of Belagavi, Hiremath wanted to pursue higher studies in Mysuru, but it did not materialise. On Thursday, it was a dream come true for him after he secured his second PhD degree from the KSOU.

“Mysuru is an education hub. I wanted to study here after SSLC. But the opportunity came in the form of KSOU after several years. I enrolled for PhD in 2011 and did a research on the ‘Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari’s Poems in Hindi’,” he explained. He also holds MA, MPhil, LLB, and BEd degrees and its the vice-president of Bangalore University Teachers Association (BUTA).