Nagpur: The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on Friday directed premature release of underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli who is serving life imprisonment at the Nagpur Central Jail.
A division bench comprising Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Vrushali Joshi allowed Gawli’s criminal petition challenging rejection of his claim for premature release in view of a January 10, 2006 government notification.
The State Government has been directed to decide on his release within four weeks from the date of the order.
Gawli and 11 others were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment by a sessions court in Mumbai on August 3, 2012, for the murder of former Shiv Sena Corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar. A Special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act) court, while pronouncing the judgment, awarded rigorous life imprisonment and also imposed Rs 17 lakh fine on him.
The application preferred by Gawli through counsel Mir Nagman Ali was rejected by the respondents, including the jail authorities, contending that the government had issued a fresh notification on December 1, 2015, which excluded a MCOCA convict from the January 2006 policy. The January 2006 policy allowed any inmate completing 65 years of age and spending 14 years behind bars to avail its benefits.
Gawli was further informed that even the 2006 notification barred convicts under laws like the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, etc from availing benefits of the policy. It was contended that the terminology used was ‘et cetera’, which indicated convicts under the MCOCA Act too would not be entitled to benefits by virtue of the rule of ‘ejusdem generis’ (of the same kind).
Gawli’s counsel Mir Nagman Ali argued that the petitioner would be entitled to benefit of 2006 notification in view of the fact that he was convicted in 2011, and therefore, a subsequent notification, which came into force in 2015, would not be applicable to him.
Known as ‘Daddy’ among his supporters, Gawli was active in Mumbai’s underworld from the 1970s to the 1990s, often engaged in bloody wars with the absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. He also founded a political party, the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, in 1997 and was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2004.
