See if Pak prisoner can be pardoned: Dr Singh to PC

Dr Singh has forwarded to Chidambaram the letter of request received from Justice Markandeya Katju. "I shall be grateful if you could examine the request of Justice Katju to see if a pardon to Dr Khalil Chishty could be considered on humanitarian grounds," the Prime Minister said in his letter to Chidambaram.

Justice Katju has made a "personal" appeal to Singh to release on "humanitarian grounds" Chishty, an 80-year-old Pakistani virologist who is in Indian jail since 1992 in a murder case.

Dr Singh has also responded to Congress member of Parliament Rajiv Shukla, through whom the judge made the appeal, and informed him about his letter to the home minister.