Around 200 prisoners on parole are at large in Maharashtra

If you are wondering how convict Sajjad Mogul, who killed lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha, jumped parole for four months, here are a few more glaring revelations.

Maharashtra prisons, at present, have over 200 cases of parole jumping, of which some are as old as 1974 and the convicts are still at large.

According to data procured from the prison department, in Pune district alone, there have been 69 cases. Of these, 46 offenders were convicted for murder, nine for attempt to murder and another nine for rape. Petty crimes account for the rest. Maharashtra has 53 prisons and around 30,000 inmates.

The crime-wise break-up from other districts could not be procured but sources claim, in most cases, the offenders are involved in heinous crimes like murder. A similar number of prisoners on furlough, too, have not returned to jails.

dna investigations have revealed that one of the oldest convicts, who, till date, has not been brought back, was released on August 23, 1974. Vidha Vasini Prasad Mishra was convicted for murder in Mumbai. Similarly, murder-convict Achut Sudharam Kale has been jumping parole since November 29, 1981. Another murder-convict Gorakh Nath Babu Rao Singhote is awaited since November 13, 1997.

Sources claim that, in most cases, jail authorities take the trouble of tracing the convict only when the media raises a hue and cry or when some senior officer or the victim's family raises an alarm. "The superintendent rarely acts on his own," said a senior officer.

Senior officials passed the buck on to the police saying it is their job to catch them. "Prison officials inform the concerned police station immediately when convicts do not return. We also follow up with the local police by sending letters and holding meetings," said B K Upadhyay, additional director general (prison). To tighten the loose ends, the home department is working on changing the parole rules, Upadhyay said.

This would be a second review of the parole and furlough rules in the last one year. The Maharashtra Prison Manual was revised last year after a gap of 36 years. The new manual took the lead in making Maharashtra the first state to deny parole to rape convicts. Prior to this, parole was was denied only to those serving term for dacoity and robbery.

The new manual has also dealt in detail with the norms of parole vis-a-vis the duration and formalities involved. It was notified in October 2015.

Number of parole jump cases from each district till April 2016

Pune: 69
Aurangabad:54
Amravati: 62
Kolhapur: Not available

(Source: Maharashtra prison department)