From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Gujarat government to decide within two months the premature release of a person convicted to life term for murder in terms of its policy dated July 9, 1992, saying the petitioner can seek remedy under the law if any adverse order is passed.
The Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath on Friday allowed the petition, setting aside the Gujarat High Court’s judgement of July 17, 2019, asking the petitioner to move the Bombay High Court since the case was decided by a Mumbai court.
Petitioner Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah @ Lala Vakil and accomplices had committed the murder in Gujarat in 2004, but in the pecular circumstances, the case as transferred from the additional sessions judge of Dahod to the competent court in Mumbai for trial and disposal.
The Mumbai trial court sentenced Shah to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for live by a judgment on January 21, 2008. His accomplice Ramesh Rupabhai moved the Bombay High Court for premature release without success.
Shah filed his petition for premature release, stating that he had undergone custody of more than 15 years, but his petition was dismissed by the Gujarat High Court, which held in its judgment on July 17, 2019 that the application has to be filed in Maharashtra and not in Gujarat since the trial had concluded in Maharashtra. The top Court on Friday quashed the judgment.
