05 April,2024 02:33 PM IST | Nagpur | mid-day online correspondent
Arun Gawli/ File Photo
Former mafia don-turned-politician Arun Gulab Gawli is set to be released early from his life sentence at Nagpur Central Jail, according to an order given by the Bombay High Court on Friday.
A division bench of Bombay HC comprising Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Vrushali Joshi has approved Arun Gawli's criminal re-petition appeal after the rejection of his prior plea seeking premature release under a government notification dated January 10, 2006, reported IANS.
"Gawli's application was rejected on grounds that the state government had come up with a fresh notification on December 1, 2015, by which a convict under the MCOCA Act was held entitled to the benefit of the policy decision," his lawyer Mir Nagman Ali told news agency IANS.
According to the IANS report, the state argued that the 2015 notification specifically exempted MCOCA convicts from policy benefits, despite the fact that the 2006 notification did not extend such benefits to convicts under laws such as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA), and so on, according to Adv. Ali.
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After hearing arguments from both parties, the court asked the state to decide on Gawli's release within four weeks of Friday, clearing the path for his early release from the jail where he has been held for 16 years, Gawli's advocate further told IANS.
Reportedly, Arun Gawli, 69, the dreaded don of Mumbai's Dagdi Chawl, was also an MLA from 2004 until 2009. Gawli was arrested in 2006, tried, and convicted of the murder of Shiv Sena politician Kamlakar Jamsandekar in 2012. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In September last year, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had granted Gawli a 28-day furlough. 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 ordered Gawli's release on furlough for 28 days after the criminal addressed the High Court through his counsel Mir Nagman Ali following the denial of his appeal for relief by DIG Prisons (Nagpur), another report stated.
