The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted a 28-day furlough to gangster Arun Gawli, who is serving a life sentence in the Central jail here.
Furlough is a set period of time when a prisoner is allowed to leave a prison.
A division bench of Justice Nitin Sambre and Valmiki Menezes directed the release of Gawli on furlough for 28 days after the gangster approached the HC through his counsel Mir Nagman Ali upon the rejection of his application for relief by DIG Prisons (Nagpur).
Gawli is undergoing life imprisonment in the central jail here in the 2007 murder case of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.
Ali told the bench that the DIG (Prisons) had rejected Gawli’s application on the ground that since many offences were registered against the gangster-turned-politician, his release may create a law and order situation.
He said it was cited that when Gawali was released on earlier occasions, an offence was registered against his wife. Another ground cited was that Gawli’s release would affect future elections in the Mumbai civic body.
The division bench of Justice Nitin Sambre and Justice Valmiki Menezes was told that whenever Gawli was released on either parole or furlough in the past, there was no law and order issue and on every occasion he had surrendered on the due date, Ali said.
It was further submitted before the division bench that the prayer for furlough cannot be rejected merely based on an adverse police report.
