Maharashtra High Court refused to grant emergency parole to the 4 convicts in the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blast.
The Aurangabad bench of Mumbai High Court dismissed the plea of 4 convicts who were serving a life term in Harsool Central Prison in Aurangabad. The four convicts were Sardar Shahwali Khan, Mohammed Moin Faridulla Khan, Niyaz Ahmed, Shaikh Ali Shaikh Umer. The bench upheld the decision of the jail authorities.
The bench consisted of Justice TV Nalawade and Justice. MG Sewilker. The four convicts requested the jail authorities for emergency parole in the light of the notification released by the state for decongestion of the jails due to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 8th, 2020. Their request was rejected by the jail authorities as they were convicted under provisions of TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) Act, 1987; a special statute; hence they were not entitled to the benefits and hence on July 7th, 2020 their request was denied.
The bench said that the notification states that those convicted for economic offense, bank scams or under special acts, etc. are not entitled to emergency parole and TADA Act, 1987 comes under these categories, hence the bench didn’t grant the emergency parole.
The government gave the notification for decongestion since the state jails are overcrowded and moreover 60 jails of Maharashtra have a 50% higher population than their actual capacity and the release of inmates may bring down the population nearer to the actual capacity.
The 1993 Mumbai bombings were a series of 13 bomb explosions that took place in Mumbai, on March 12th, 1993. The blasts resulted in 270 deaths; 1400 people were injured. After nearly 20 years of judicial proceedings, the Supreme Court gave its judgment on March 21st, 2015 giving a death sentence to Yakub Memon and life term to 10 others. However, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon; two other suspects of the bombings; have not yet been arrested or tried. The Maharashtra state government executed Yakub Memon on July 30th, 2015. Sardar Shahwali Khan, a civil contractor and aide of prime accused of Tiger Memon was convicted for conspiracy.
