During the Corona period, many prison inmates across the country were released on emergency parole to prevent the prison from overcrowding. Now there is no trace of prisoners released on parole. Mumbai City Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar has taken serious note of this. He has directed all senior officers and all police stations to search for the prisoners who have gone off the police radar.
The prisoner did not return to prison after the emergency Covid parole ended. The police are getting a headache as they have no information about their whereabouts. Commissioner of Police Vivek Phansalkar directed the senior officers to launch a special operation to search for the estimated 862 prisoners who went off the radar.
Mumbai Commissioner Phansalkar has asked all divisional deputy commissioners of police and senior police inspectors of all police stations to send reports of prisoners who have not returned to the jail. They have also been instructed to carry out a special operation to find them and bring them back to jail.
After the Maharashtra government lifted all the restrictions imposed under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 on April 1, the state Home Department on May 4 issued an order for temporary parole, directing all convicted prisoners to return to jail.The Home Department has also directed the Prisons Department to register cases against those who have not returned under Section 224 (opposing legal custody) of the Indian Penal Code.
Following the order, the prison department began reviewing the parole status of all inmates who took advantage of the immediate parole. As many as 3,340 prisoners returned to the jail within the stipulated time and those who could not return were reported to the concerned police station.