The Bombay High Court on Monday came down heavily on a Maharashtra jail official for imposing strict conditions on convicted German bomb blast convict Mirza Himayat Beig while allowing him to take temporary leave.
Advocate Ibrahim Harbat, who represented Beig, said that his client was asked to deposit Rs 50,000 as per the court order and said that he was from a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family, according to the police report. Beig’s family holds a yellow subsidy card and his brother is a daily bettor in Beed.
Furlough is a temporary release from prison that allows inmates to maintain family and social relationships, as well as deal with personal issues.
Beig applied for an adjournment in February, but it was rejected in August, after which he went to the appeals authorities which kept his appeal pending for months. He then applied to the High Court on November 15, but the authorities rejected his application on November 22.
Later, during the trial, when the court said that the authorities should use their discretion, the authority issued the order on December 4, allowing Beig to use the leave but with strict conditions.
Looking at that order, a bench of Justices Bharti Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said, “A personal bond of Rs 50,000! You made him unable to come out. What kind of situation is this? We have never seen the imposition of such conditions? . The Supreme Court has been asking the high courts to ensure that they do not impose strict conditions.”
“You know he will not be able to achieve this. Where do you get these conditions? On what basis did you set these conditions? Show us. Do not do the opposite because we were asking you to release him,” said the bench.
The authorities had ordered Beig to pay Rs 50,000. He was also ordered to furnish two sureties of Rs 50,000, one for a relative and one for a non-relative. Beig and his relative had to give personal bonds, which is a form of affidavit stating that he will return to prison on time.
Additional Public Prosecutor Mankuwar Deshmukh argued that stringent conditions were imposed as Beig was convicted under the Explosives Act.
However, the bench said, “So? You have two or three people being killed continuously.” The bench added that such stringent measures should not be imposed even under the terrorism laws.
The bench ordered that a police officer be present from the jail to answer the court’s question and threatened to impose costs. Mankuwar then asked the court to allow the authority to withdraw its order and pass a different one on Tuesday morning.
Beig recently took a 45-day amnesty to take care of her ailing mother. On that break, he had to go to the Supreme Court and the bench got an order from the jail authorities dismissing his plea as “completely unjust”.
In September, the bench ruled that heavy costs should be imposed on an officer who takes such a view and denies a prisoner an important right on frivolous grounds.
Harbat, Beig’s lawyer, pointed out that even during the amnesty, Beig’s brother, Tariq, had completed all the formalities, including providing two sureties, a surety of Rs 15,000 and giving the names, addresses and contact details of the sureties, after which he was released. .
Beig was arrested in 2010 shortly after the German Bakery explosion, and it was only recently that he was released from prison on parole, while his appeal in the case is pending in the Supreme Court.
In February 2010, 17 people were killed and 64 injured after a powerful explosion ripped through a German bakery in Pune’s Koregaon Park. Beig is the only person convicted in the case. He was convicted under the Explosives Act but acquitted of terrorism charges.
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