Absconding convict of fake encounter case held, HC told

Bombay High Court was on Thursday told by the city police that it has traced and arrested a convict, absconding since 2013 after jumping parole in a 2006 case of fake encounter of an alleged gangster Ramnarayan Gupta.

A Bench of Justices RV More and Anuja Prabhudessai last month warned of criminal action against the errant police officials for failing to trace the convict who was out on parole in 2013 but who never returned to jail.

The police informed the court about the arrest of absconding convict during hearing of a plea by Ramnarayan’s brother Ramprasad on the issue. Additional Public Prosecutor Jayesh Yagnik conveyed to the court that convict Shailendra Pandey was tra- ced to Goa and was arrested last week.

“The convict was traced and arrested when we said we would initiate criminal action against the police. Everybody is hand in glove including the police officers. What signal are we sending to the society? We are going to take this matter very seriously,” Justice More said. The Bench posted the petition for hearing on June 12 and directed cops to file a report.

According to the petition, absconding convict Shailendra Pandey had been serving a life sentence when he was granted parole for a month on November 2, 2013.

Pandey, however, got the parole extended by some days on pretext of needing to get admitted in a hospital for eye treatment. His whereabouts have not been known since.

The Andheri police registered an FIR on February 21, 2014 after the jail authorities informed them of Pandey having jumped parole, but failed to do anything else.