After Sanjay Dutt, another 1993 blast convict gets parole

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of release of actor Sanjay Dutt on parole to take care of his ailing wife, a similar relief has been extended to another 1993 bomb blast accused on the same ground.

The Divisional Commissioner, Pune, has ordered the release of Mujib Parkar on parole for a month to attend to his wife, the Government informed the Bombay High Court yesterday.

Parkar, lodged in Kolhapur prison, has moved the court earlier seeking parole as the Pune Divisional Commissioner and later the Under Secretary of the Home Department had rejected his plea on the ground that police had opposed his release.

However, the court asked the Divisional Commissioner of Pune to reconsider decision on Parkar's plea for parole.

His lawyer, advocate Farhana Shah, argued that Parkar, sentenced to five years' term by TADA court, had already served about half of it. His wife was suffering from appendicitis and had been advised surgery, she said.

Advocate Shah also pointed out that Parkar was earlier released on parole once, and he did not abuse the liberty. Nor did he breach any of the conditions imposed by the trial court when he was on bail for 16 years, she pointed out.

The Court disposed of Parkar's petition, saying it did not survive because parole had been granted to the convict. In another development, Zebunisa Kazi, who was also convicted along with Dutt and Parkar in the same case, has also filed a petition in the High Court seeking parole.

Kazi, aged 70, is serving a five-year term in Yerwada prison of Pune. She was denied parole in October 2013. Kazi then filed an appeal before the Home Ministry in November. As the appeal is still pending, she moved the High Court seeking an early decision.

Kazi has pleaded that her 90-year-old mother was not well and bed-ridden and she needed to take care of her. Her petition will be heard by a bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil on January 13. Kazi was convicted by a TADA court in the 1993 bomb blast case, for possessing arms and ammunition.

Dutt, who is undergoing the remainder of his five-year jail term at Yerawada Central Jail in Pune in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, is currently out on a 30-day parole.