Bombay High Court orders release of jailed underworld don Arun Gawli

In a significant development, underworld don Arun Gawli alias Daddy - who is serving a life sentence in a sensational murder - is set to be released from prison prematurely, thanks to a 2006 notification.

Gawli (68), who is the founder of Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS), was an MLA from 2004-09 from Chinchpokli seat of Mumbai. Gawli shot into prominence from Dagdi Chawl, a neighbourhood of Byculla.

Gawli is undergoing sentence for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar on March 2 in 2007. Though from the beginning the murder was suspected to have been committed over a property dispute, it took more than 13 months for the police to crack the case. In April 2008 when a group of robbers were arrested they spilled the beans on the murder and the role of Gawli.

The underworld don was held under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). He was convicted in 2012 and sent to the Nagpur central prison.

In fact, though Gawli had been arrested in several cases in the past, this was the first case in which the police could secure conviction.

According to a Maharashtra government notification of 20 January, 2006, a convict is entitled to be released after the completion of 14 years of imprisonment and attaining the age of 65.

However, in Gawli’s case, he was not allowed as he was convicted under the MCOCA.

Gawli has moved the Bombay High Court on this ground.

After hearings, a division bench of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Vrushali Joshi, ordered his release and

“The convict would be entitled to the benefit of 2006 policy and he cannot be excluded from the benefit of policy by resorting to rule of ejusdem generis (of the same kind),” the bench said.

The court asked the government to release Gawli within four weeks of the order.

However, the Maharashtra government can move the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order.

Advocate Mir Nagman Ali appeared for Gawli. “Gawli fulfils the conditions set by the notification…he is over 65 years old and he is also weak because of health issues,” Ali told reporters.

Gawli’s application was earlier rejected on grounds that the state government had come up with a fresh notification on 1 December, 2015, which is an amendment to the Maharashtra Prisons (Review of Sentences) Rules, 1972. The amendment denies the benefit of the 2006 remission rule for those convicted under the MCOCA.

Ali had argued that Gawli would be entitled to the benefit of the 2006 notification because he was convicted in 2009, and therefore, a subsequent notification that came into force in 2015 would not be applicable to him.