ADGP (Prisons) summoned over 36 absconding convicts

Pulling up the State and its authorities for failing to arrest 36 prisoners — who are absconding since several years after their release on parole — the High Court of Karnataka on Monday directed the Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons) to appear before it on September 7.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar and Justice Budihal R.B. issued the direction, while noticing that it was more than a year since the High Court had issued directions to the authorities to apprehend 47 absconding prisoners.

So far, only 11 have been arrested. The State is not taking action to get these absconding prisoners back in jail, the Bench said while observing that the answers given by the authorities before the police by way of statement are duly unsatisfactory.

The Bench, from records produced before it, found that the officials concerned are “not taking any action seriously and are proceeding casually” in this matter. The High Court in February 2014 had

suo motu taken cognisance on absconding prisoners when it noticed that a convict, whose appeal against conviction was pending before the court, was absconding for more than a year. A shocking revelation that 47 prisons were absconding, some even from past 13 to 14 years, after they were released on parole, was unearthed from the prison records after the court sought detailed report on absconding prisoners.

The court, in April last, had issued a series of guidelines for releasing prisoners on parole while issuing directions to the authorities to apprehend all absconding prisoners and submit report to the court by June 30, 2014 about their arrest.

Officials are not taking action seriously, says court