"So ja beta, nahi toh Gabbar aa jayega," the Supreme Court, on Wednesday observed, quoting from the Hindi blockbuster "Sholay", while confirming its earlier order staying the premature release of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli who is serving life imprisonment in a murder case.
Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Gawli, told the apex court that the other co-accused in the murder case had been given bail in the matter and the Bombay High Court was right in granting Gawli premature release.
She further elaborated that in 2015, the Maharashtra government had changed its remission policy. This court had earlier also said that the remission policy will apply when he was convicted. The 2006 remission policy of the state government will apply since he was convicted in 2009. "This policy allows remission (of Gawli) on account of age and infirmity," she pleaded to the SC.
To this, the bench told Ramakrishnan that not everybody is Arun Gawli.
Quoting from the epic blockbuster Hindi movie, "Sholay", the apex court said, "There is an iconic dialogue, if you could remember. 'So ja beta, nahi toh Gabbar aa jayega'. This could be the case here."
A two-judge bench of the top court, led by Justices Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta, on Wednesday confirmed its June 3 order and also stayed the operation of the April 5 order of the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench. The HC had in its order allowed Gawli's plea seeking a direction to the state government for his premature release on account of the 2006 remission policy.
While declining to grant any interim relief to Gawli, the apex court posted the matter for further hearing to November 20.
The SC's order staying Gawli's premature release from jail is a huge setback for the former underworld gangster who is battling heart disease and has a lung defect.
Opposing the HC's order, senior lawyer Raja Thakare, appearing for the Maharashtra government, argued before the Supreme Court that Gawli has over 46 cases, including around 10 cases of murder, against him.
Opposing Gawli's prematurely release from jail, Thakare cited that under the statute of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), convicts have to undergo imprisonment for at least 40 years for remission. This is as per the policy of 2015.
Gawli, convicted and undergoing life imprisonment in the 2007 murder of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar, has been in jail for the last 17 years. He sought the benefits of the 2006 policy, clubbed with the fact that he was 72 years old and in ill health.