Maharashtra: Rape convict walks free before jail term ends as he tops yoga exam

Mumbai: A convict who was sentenced to jail by a Nagpur court for raping a relative in 2012, walked free before his term ended because he topped the yoga exams conducted by the Maharashtra Prisons Department.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Sheetal Kawale was released from jail, 40 days before his prison term ended. An official from the State Prisons Department said that he scored a distinction in the exam and thus was granted the 40-day reduction in his sentence.

Two other convicts, Sachin and Balu Pund, who were imprisoned for seven years in a 2011 assault case, were also granted a reduction in their terms for doing well in their yoga exams. According to the jail official, while Sachin scored 83 in the 100 mark tests, Balu managed a 70% and they were given a 40 and 30 days reduction in jail term respectively.

It was the Centre that had asked all states in the country to promote Yoga last year in all walks of life and the Fadnavis-led government decided to introduce the exams in the central prisons of Maharashtra.

In Nagpur Central Prison, close to 350 inmates, including undertrials have been practising yoga everyday.

Around 136 prisoners who cleared exams on yoga were given a remittance of three months earlier this year for exams which were conducted in May 2016 and October 2015.