Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has refused to direct the Telangana state government to extend the parole of Mohammed Irfan Ali, who had been sentenced to life for the murder of M.A. Khadeer, deputy secretary of the erstwhile AP State Wakf Board.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter, while dismissing Irfan Ali’s appeal challenging the order of a single judge, expressed wonder at the appellant being outside prison for 16 months.
Noting that Irfan Ali had been sentenced to life imprisonment for indulging in a heinous crime of killing an official while he was on duty, the bench made it clear that no prisoner was to be allowed to stay outside the prison on the ground of pendency of application for extension of parole before the government.
The bench pointed out that the Prison Rules stipulated that the period of release on parole should not ordinarily exceed one month, and no further extension shall be granted. The Rules make it clear that the continued illness of a relative was not a ground for extension of parole.
Irfan Ali, who was released on parole on September 4, 2015, from the Cherlapally Central Prison on the ground of his wife’s illness, had sought further extension for six months as she was said to be suffering from cancer.
TS home department counsel H. Venugopal said that though the government had the power to extend the parole in the exceptional circumstances, Irfan Ali’s case did not fall in that category.
The bench said, “Parole is a matter of discretion. The appellant is sentenced to life. He required to stay behind bars”. The bench observed that remission of sentence could not be given to a person who killed a public servant on duty.
The bench made it clear that there was no illegality in the order of the single judge in directing Irfan Ali to surrender before the jail superintendent on or before December 15, 2016. He could apply afresh for parole if he needed it, the bench said.
