The Maharashtra government has framed new rules which will not grant “regular” parole to those convicted for rape, rape with murder, murder, terrorist crimes, kidnapping, narcotics smuggling, human trafficking and sexual offences against minors.
Additional Director General (Prisons) Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay said the government had, on August 26, issued notification to amend the Maharashtra Prisons Act 1894. The fresh rules will be called Maharashtra Prisons (Mumbai Furlough and Parole) (Amendment) Rules, 2016, and will come into force from the date of their publication in the official gazette.
The new rules were framed in the wake of the embarrassment suffered by the government after Sajjad Moghal, a watchman serving a life sentence at Nashik Central Jail in the murder case of Mumbai lawyer Pallavai Purkayastha since June 2014, jumped parole in March this year, and remains untraceable.
According to the amended rules, a person whose appeal of conviction in a higher court or any other case filed against him/her either by the Central or State government in any is pending, and for which bail has not been granted by the related courts, will not be eligible for furlough. Furlough is leave from prison that every convict is entitled to. However, convicts can be eligible for “emergency” parole, which will be granted in the event of death of grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, spouse, son, daughter, brother or sister.
Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Centre for Criminology & Justice, School of Social Work, told The Hindu that the government’s decision “is highly myopic. The public perception seems to be that granting parole is an act of leniency, which should not apply to hardened offenders.”
He added, “Parole is one of the many measures that correctional theory envisages for an offender to prepare for a return to family and civil society. Grant of parole, furlough, remission and premature release has been put in place in consonance with UN guidelines and progressive correctional theory. That such facilities can be misused through use of influence or corruption holds true for all laws and systems in place. One case of bad judgment should not become the yardstick for changing policies without a careful analysis of the overall scenario.”
The Prisons Department could not provide specific statistics, but police sources said about 200 convicts had jumped parole over the years in the State, and about 8,900 misused parole/furlough across the country in the last 10 years.
