Parole jumpers make up almost 10 per cent

Not just Pallavi Purkayastha’s murderer jumped parole; in the previous year, 152 of the 1,670 prisoners granted parole, jumped it. Of the 152, only 28 were arrested while the rest are yet to be traced. Worse still, 29 prisoners escaped from different jails in the state.

According to data released by National Crime Records Bureau as part of its Prisons Statistics India for 2015, the state prisons authority granted parole to a total of 1,670 prisoners, which included 1,620 men and 50 women. Of these, 149 men and three women did not return after their parole period ended and were later declared “absconders”. The number of prisoners who jumped parole in 2015 was almost double of 2014 when 58 prisoners jumped parole, out of which 43 were traced and arrested. Also, in 2014, all 46 women prisoners who were granted parole, returned after their parole period ended unlike the three women prisoners in 2015 who are still absconding.

The data further revealed that 29 prisoners escaped from various prisons in the state with 13 from inside prison premises, five while they were being taken for hearing or medical check-ups, and 11 from police custody. Of the total prisoners who escaped, 17 were traced and arrested by police and handed back to prison authorities.

These statistics assume importance in the wake of the shocking instance of Sajjad Mughal, who, arrested for the murder of Ms Purkayastha, jumped parole. Lodged in Nashik Central Jail after being convicted for the brutal murder of the young lawyer, Mughal was granted parole to visit his family in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. Prison authorities realised only three months after his parole ended that he had not returned.

The case, brought to light irregularities in the working of Nashik Jail which allegedly did not inform J&K police that a convicted prisoner was going to their jurisdiction on parole.

Investigations by the prison department led to suspension of the then Jail Superintendent, J.S. Naik who had okayed Mughal’s parole application.