Free Press Journal: Mumbai: Monday,
April 11, 2016.
An RTI query
has revealed that the state government has no record of other convicts who were
granted remission on account of good behaviour.
However,
Additional Director-General (Prisons) Bhushankumar Upadhyay said there are a
large number of jails in the state and that there is no provision with the
government to compile all records. He also said that non availability of
records does not mean no one has been granted remission. Bollywood actor Sanjay
Dutt, who was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, served a
42-month sentence at Pune jail. He was released on February 25, 103 days ahead
of his prison term on account of his good behaviour while in the jail.
RTI activist
Mansoor Darvesh had filed a query with the state Law and Judiciary department,
seeking details of convicts who secured early release from prison on similar
grounds.
He also
sought the number of applications that are pending for the remission of
convicts and the reason for not granting remission to them, along with the list
of convicts whose sentence cannot be remitted on account of defaults on their
part to pay the penalty amount in the last five years.
In response
to the query, it was stated that the department has not kept records of
convicts who have been granted remission.
“The
information sought is not compiled and thus not available,” the office of
Additional DGP and Inspector General of Prisons, where the query was forwarded
to, stated, adding that a list of 43 prisons across the state has been provided
and necessary information can be obtained from there.
Darvesh
claimed that the government’s failure to keep records of convicts granted
remission means that not a single person has been freed early on the grounds.
“Is it that
the government only keeps records of celebrities being granted remission?
Giving a list of 43 prisons and asking an applicant to contact each prison is a
lame excuse by the government to shrug responsibility off its own shoulders as
not a single prisoner has been released early on account of good behaviour in
the last 5 years,” Darvesh said.
Upadhyay said
that remission is a very important and well documented activity of a jail and
anybody can simply contact the jail administration and seek details. “Remission
is granted at the level of jail authorities and records are not with the
government as there are no provisions of keeping centralised records. But, not
keeping records does not mean nobody has been granted remission,” he said.
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