In an apparent gross case of negligence, the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police alleged that neither the Maharashtra police nor the prisons department informed them that Sajjad Mughal, a convict lodged in Nashik Central jail had gone to J&K for parole. Mughal was arrested for the murder of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha and was serving a life imprisonment in Nashik.
Senior superintendent of police Baramulla district in J&K, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir said, “The first information we received about the convict named Sajjad Mughal was during May end when Nashik police told us that he had not returned to the prison after being granted a month’s parole.”
Mr Mir said that such behaviour on part of a state’s prisons authority or officials in central jail was unheard of. “It is because of the negligence of Nashik police that the convict took advantage of them and escaped from parole,” Mr Mir added.
He lists out the formalities not followed by the police and prisons, which he adds, consequently meant that they could not follow procedure once the convict reached J&K.
“Nashik police didn’t follow any formalities after the convict was granted parole. Firstly, they didn’t even intimate J&K police that Sajjad’s parole plea was accepted and he was being sent to Uri village. Due to this we had no knowledge about him being in the state,” Mir said. He adds that generally once they are informed the local police present the convict in court wherein the judge studies the conditions in the parole grant and instructs the convict about his duties here.
“In this case, he had to report to the local police station. But since we did not know about it, we could neither present him in court nor inform the Uri police. Hence, the officers could not even check why he was not logging his daily attendance at the police station,” the senior superintendent of police said.
When contacted, B.K. Upadhyay, additional director general and IG (Prisons) said, “He (Mughal) has disappeared, but it’s not our work to look for him. It is the job of the city police to look after the matter.”
But the divisional commissioner of Nashik Eknath Dawale had a different story to tell. “I have quasi judicial powers that means that after a convict applies for parole, it is the job of the jail authorities to decide whether it needs to be processed and sent for approval. In this case too the same happened and I am only the signing authority to approve or reject a parole application,” he said.
He adds that Mughal had asked to go home to Uri in Baramulla district of Kashmir to visit his ailing mother. The parole was granted to Mughal on February 28 and was to end on March 28. Speaking about the investigation, Mr Mir said that they first spoke to Mughal’s father who incidentally had also paid surety of Rs 7,000 to facilitate his parole.
