Soon, no parole for serious offenders

The Maharashtra government has amended the state prisons’ manual to ensure that those convicted for serious offences, including rape and murder, would be barred from applying for parole. The state’s move comes in the light of a case in which Sajjad Mogul — convicted for life for murdering city-based corporate lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha — jumped parole in April this year.

Additional DG (prisons) B.K. Upadhyay confirmed to The Asian Age that a notification was issued by the state government on Monday, making the necessary amendments to the Maharashtra Prisons Rule, 1959. Furlough, too, will from now onwards not be granted to convicts sentenced for offences like dacoity, terror, mutiny against the state, kidnapping for ransom, smuggling of narcotic or psychotropic substances, rape and rape with murder. Furlough will also not be available for a convict sentenced to a life until death.

Mogul, a native of Jammu and Kashmir who was serving a life sentence at Nashik Central Jail, had sought parole in February this year citing his mother’s then alleged illness. He has been traceless ever since. On April 28, the police had lodged a case against him for charges related to alleged resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension.

Mogul had killed Purkayastha (25) on August 9, 2012 at her apartment after she allegedly spurned his advances. He was employed as a watchman in the building where the deceased resided.

According to the state’s notification, all prisoners eligible for furlough shall be eligible for regular parole. According to the amended rules, a person whose appeal against conviction in a higher court is pending — or any other cases filed against them either by the Centre or state governments in any of the courts are pending and for which bail has not been granted by the related courts — will not be eligible for furlough.

But criticising the state's decision to ban prisoners convicted in rape and murder cases from being granted parole, Prof Vijay Raghavan of the Centre for Criminology and Justice's School of Social Work termed the decision as 'highly myopic'. He said that the grant of parole, furlough, remission and premature release has been put in place in consonance with UN guidelines and progressive correctional theory.