Prisoner kin’s parole plight got me to carry out raid

LUCKNOW: What prompted prison minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia to raid sections of his department on Monday and catch the clerks there off-guard? It was an emphatic plea by an elderly woman seeking parole for her son, a life convict, so that he could attend his daughter’s wedding that made the minister swing into action. When the man was jailed, his daughter was just six years old. Now, she is 24 years’ old and her father has spent 18 years in prison. “The family members were running from pillar to post for the parole so that the father could bless the bride but officials rejected the plea,” the minister said while talking to HT. “A few days ago, an elderly woman (the bride’s grandmother) walked into my office with an application. She spoke about the harassment at the hands of prison department officers. The elderly woman was in tears. All that she wanted was that her son be permitted to attend his daughter’s wedding, he said. “The woman’s appeal made be emotional. How can we be so cruel? The greed of the prison staff was unpardonable, they were tormenting a girl who had not met her father for 18 years. The family was fleeced, it was too much and I decided to teach the prison department clerks, who had dumped the parole application, a lesson and raided the sections,” Ramoowalia said. “I had cleared around 250 applications for granting parole to under trials after taking charge of the prison department on November 1, 2015, but merely 20-30 of them actually got the go-ahead,” he said. Ramoowalia probed the matter and unearthed corruption. For granting parole, the prison staff charged Rs 2,000 from each applicant, he adding, adding the application of those who expressed inability to grease palms was dumped. “The denial of parole is leading to anguish among the family members of the under trials,” he said. “Remember, Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, while lodged in Yeravada jail, Pune, was granted parole to meet his family members,” Ramoowalia recalled. The media carried pictures of Dutt with his wife and children. “Why is the common undertrial denied the same happiness?” he asked.

Curbs on jailed mafiosi: To check the activities of mafiosi lodged in various jails, Ramoowalia passed an order restricting their meetings with visitors. The step was taken after police found that supporters of mafiosi as well as members of their gangs visited jails to discuss plans to carry out crime and received instructions to com- mit crimes.