Maharashtra scraps 'regular parole' for convicts of serious crimes

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has amended prison rules to henceforth bar convicts of serious crimes like dacoity, rape, murders and other major offences from getting regular parole, an official said on Wednesday.

Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) B.K. Upadhyay said a notification to the effect has been issued on the amendments to the Maharashtra Prisons Rule, 1959.

As per the amended rules, a convict with an appeal pending in a higher court or in any other cases filed either by the Centre or the state are pending for which he/she has not been granted bail by a court would not be eligible for furlough.

Similarly, a convict of unsound mind according to a medical report shall also be denied furlough leave - which is the right of every convict.

Convicts for serious offences including terror, dacoity, mutiny against the state, kidnap for ransom, smuggling narcotics of psychotropic substances and those sentenced to life imprisonment till death shall also be refused furlough.

However, they will be permitted aemergency parole' for incidents of death of close relatives like grandparents, parents, spouse, siblings or children.

The same (emergency parole) will be applicable for serious illnesses of parents, spouse, children, siblings and marriage of siblings or children, granted as per the prison's discretion.

The amendments to the rules came after the state government faced huge embarrassment in the wake of a convict sentenced to life for rape-cum-murder jumped parole a few months ago.

The convict, Sajjad Moghul, a security guard, was serving his life sentence in Nashik Central Jail for the rape and murder of a Mumbai lawyer, 25-year old Pallavi Purkayastha, in 2012 at her flat in Mumbai.

Moghul had been granted parole to visit his ailing mother in Jammu and Kashmir and has since then remained untraceable.