18 August,2016 07:41 AM IST | | Santosh Wagh
Not just lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha's murderer and the Kurla rapist-killer, but several other criminals have cut loose from the prison in just the last seven months; only five have been caught
Nashik Jail just can't seem to keep a hold on its inmates. Days after mid-day highlighted how the Nehru Nagar rapist-murderer had to be tracked down and arrested after he jumped parole, it now turns out that a total of 17 convicts have similarly escaped from the prison and are still at large. Many of the absconding convicts were serving life terms for serious crimes like rape and murder.
22 Jump Street
Following reports of the missing prisoners, the state has now put a ban on paroles and furloughs until a new law is put in place. For now, however, things don't look too good for Nashik Jail. As per the statistics available with mid-day, in little over seven months from January 2016 till August 10, the prison granted parole to 525 convicts, of whom 22 did not return. So far, the police have managed to arrest only five of them.
While Purkayastha's killer Sajjad Mughal has been absconding from Nashik Jail since March 23, Nehru Nagar serial rapist Javed Sheikh was arrested on August 14, 10 days after he jumped parole
Confirming the report, Additional Director General (Prisons) Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay said, "We have registered FIRs against all 17 absconding convicts and efforts are on to locate them."
Nashik Jail officials are already in the dock ever since the escape of Sajjad Mughal, the security guard who was convicted of raping and murdering Wadala lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012.
mid-day had reported
how Mughal exploited loopholes in the parole system and fled after he was granted parole ('It's official: Lax system helped Sajjad Mughal jump parole', June 28). He is still at large.
On Tuesday, this paper again reported how inmate Javed Sheikh - serial rapist-killer of children - also jumped parole. He was arrested in the nick of time, as cops suspected that he was trying to flee. It was this very fear that has prompted them to warn the authorities not to grant him parole.
Sheikh was serving a life sentence for kidnapping, raping and murdering three little girls - all under the age of 10. Despite the heinous nature of his crimes and warning from the police, the authorities granted him parole anyway, and he nearly got away.
