PANJIM: The Supreme Court has dismissed the special leave petition (SLP) filed by four accused in the sensational August 2006 Mandar Surlakar murder case seeking their release from jail by including period of parole and furlough, while considering the term of 14 years of their actual imprisonment.
The four accused Rohan Pai Dhungat, Nafiaz Shaikh, Shankar Tiwari and Jovito Ryan Pinto had filed an appeal before the Apex Court against the order of the High Court of Bombay at Goa, who in August last year had dismissed their writ petitions. Senior counsel Adv Siddharth Dave and Adv Shivraj Gaonkar, arguing on behalf of the petitioners vehemently submitted that in the facts and circumstances of the case the High Court had seriously erred in holding that the period of parole is to be excluded from the period of sentence under the Rules, 2006 while considering 14 years of actual imprisonment for the purpose of premature release.
Adv Dave further submitted that even while on parole the accused/convicts can be said to be in custody/judicial custody and therefore, period of parole is to be included while considering 14 years of actual imprisonment for the purpose of premature release.
The High Court had held that the period of parole is to be excluded from the period of sentence while considering the 14 years to actual imprisonment for the purpose of premature release. The accused had prayed for their release from jail.
However, the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice C T Ravikumar stated that if period of parole is included/accepted while considering 14 years of actual imprisonment then any prisoner who may be influential may get the parole for number of times as there is no restrictions and it can be granted number of times and if the submission on behalf of the prisoners is accepted, it may defeat the very object and purpose of actual imprisonment.
“We are of the firm view that for the purpose of considering actual imprisonment, the period of parole is to be excluded. We are in complete agreement with the view taken by the High Court holding so. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above, all these Special Leave Petitions deserve to be dismissed and are accordingly dismissed,” the Apex Court said.
According to Adv Shivraj Gaonkar, the Supreme Court decided SLPs on question of law and dismissed them without even issuing notices to respondents, i.e. State government, Home Department, Goa Children’s Court and late Mandar’s father Deepak Surlakar.
As on date the four accused had already completed 11 to 12 years of their sentence and not 14 years of “actual imprisonment”. Most of the petitioners serving life sentence had spent a little over two years on parole and around two months on furlough. Most of them had also earned remission of about 18 to 20 months. The High Court had not counted these periods for determining the actual imprisonment undergone by the prisoners and had refused them premature release.
