HC grants furlough to underworld don Arun Gawli

NAGPUR: Despite strong opposition from the police in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in Mumbai on April 29, underworld don Arun Gawli on Tuesday managed to secure furlough for the maximum permissible 28 days from the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court.

A division bench comprising justices Zaka Haq and Vinay Joshi, however, put a rider stating the gangster-cum-politician would be released only after April 30 following apprehensions raised by the Mumbai police that his presence may lead to trouble during the polls. After his application for furlough was rejected by the deputy inspector general (DIG Prisons), Gawli approached the judiciary through his counsel — Rajendra Daga and Mir Nagman Ali — stating he wanted to meet his family members. On August 3, 2012, the gangster, along with 11 others, was convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena MLA Kamalakar Jamsandekar and was awarded rigorous life imprisonment. Earlier, while strongly opposing Gawli’s application, the DIG and jail superintendent (SP) through public prosecutor Tehsin Mirza submitted a long list of criminal cases in which Gawli was involved. The duo also informed the court about the alleged involvement of Gawli’s wife in a recent case.

The judges, however, brushed aside their contention by clarifying that whenever Gawli was released on parole or furlough, he wasn’t involved in any crime and neither did any adverse observation against him come to the fore.

Apart from a good track record while serving his sentence, Gawlialso brought to the notice of the court his achievement as a topper in the exam on Gandhian thoughts conducted in the central jail last year.