In an episode similar to the sensational Bitti Mohanty case, a woman murder convict, Daisy, who jumped parole four years ago was finally tracked in Coimbatore, and brought back to the Bangalore central jail.
Daisy (32), a resident of Bapujinagar in Bangalore, was arrested along with her older brother Shaama from Coimbatore on Tuesday.
Police said she had been convicted in 2004 for killing her sister-in-law, Jamuna (25), over dowry. Jamuna was married to Daisy’s younger brother David.
Dowry death
Daisy and her mother Leelamma, who had also been convicted, had poured kerosene and set Jamuna ablaze. Based on Jamuna’s dying declaration, the police arrested Daisy, Leelamma and David. The court sentenced the two women to life while David got a six-month term as he was not in Bangalore during the murder.
After serving five years, Daisy managed to get a 90-day parole on the grounds that her older brother was bedridden and that there no one to take care of him.
She then vanished with another brother Shaama, who had stood surety for her parole. Using mobile call records, the police on Tuesday shocked the fugitives by making an appearance in Coimbatore where the two had assumed new identities and were employed in private companies.
Police caught napping
As per procedure, the jurisdictional police are responsible for keeping a tab on convicts on parole. Those on parole have to mandatorily visit the jurisdictional police station regularly and sign the attendance register.
Keeping away from the police station without informing the officer concerned is a violation of parole conditions that can get the convicts arrested and the parole cancelled.
Parole riders
Parole is granted to a convict based on the recommendation of the jurisdictional police who are expected to do a background check and verify the reason for the parole, said a senior police officer.
In Daisy’s case, the jurisdictional police were caught napping.
They woke up only after the jail authorities reminded them about her last month. Thereafter they registered a missing complaint (Crime Number 122/13)
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) D.C. Rajappa claimed the police were on the lookout for Daisy for four years.
“We tracked their [Daisy’s and Shaama’s] movements based on mobile records and nabbed them,” he said, but refused to comment on the police lapses that had led to Daisy’s escape.
Bitti Mohanty, the son of a former senior Odisha police officer, had jumped parole in a rape case in Rajasthan and was traced after seven years in Kannur, Kerala, where he had been working under a false identity.
