Parole jumper’s report sought

The Bombay high court has demanded a report from the JJ Marg police station after it came to light that a prisoner who allegedly jumped parole six years ago from Amravati Jail is yet to be traced.

The prisoner has been identified as Sohel Abdul Rashid Sheikh, according to sources in the JJ Marg police station. The man had been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and was serving his sentence since 2000. While he had been out on parole two to three times, in 2010 when he left jail on parole, he did not return after his parole ended.

Sheikh, a repeat offender, had been arrested in 1998 by the Colaba police and booked for murder. “After his trial, in 2000, he was sentenced to life imprisonment to be served at the Central Prison in Amravati,” said a police source.

He added that he was granted parole to visit his family in April 2010 and was to return on April 29, 2010. But he did not turn up. His family stays near the JJ Marg police station area.

“Since the JJ Marg police station is the local police station, the authorities here were notified. He was to mark his attendance daily at the station,” said an officer. But he added that while Sheikh did visit the police station initially, he stopped doing so after some time.

“While we informed the Amravati Jail, by the time they got back to us, his parole end date had passed and the jail authorities asked us to start investigations,” said the source. He added that in January this year, the jail authorities declared Sheikh as absconding and registered an FIR regarding the same with the JJ Marg police station.

Police sources reveal that their investigations have revealed that Sheikh would sneak in mobile phones in to the jail. “When Sheikh would come back to Mumbai on parole, he continued indulging in petty thefts and would also buy stolen mobile phones from his sources and take it back with him to the jail. We have started investigations into his whereabouts, have told our informers too,” a police source said.

The high court on September 20, pulled up the JJ Marg police over the absconding prisoner and has asked them to start a search and also submit a report within three weeks about him.

Recently, Sajjad Mughal, the convict in the Pallavi Purkayastha murder case jumped parole from Nashik Jail after being allowed to visit his ailing mother in Kashmir.

The incident led to the suspension of the jail superintendent and a review of parole and furlough rules by the prisons department.