BENGALURU: Taking the state government to task for not bringing back 36 prisoners who had become untraceable after their release on parole, the High Court on Monday ordered the additional director general of police (prisons) to appear in court on September 7.
Hearing a suo motu criminal petition registered in 2014, a division bench headed by Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar also directed the ADGP to file an affidavit on the matter. The case was registered after it was noticed that a prisoner who was granted parole was missing from April 2012.
“The state is not taking any action to get these prisoners back in prison. The answer given by the authorities by way of a statement before the police is duly unsatisfactory. Even from the records we find that the officials concerned are not taking any serious action,” the bench said.
It had given directions to the state government to arrest the prisoners by June 30, 2014 and submit a report to the registrar (judicial) of the High Court. It had also directed the authorities to register criminal cases against them.
HC Relief for Dhoni
The High Court on Monday issued an interim order dispensing with the need for the presence of team India ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s before IX ACMM Court in the city, in connection with a criminal case lodged against him. Justice A N Venugopala Gowda passed this interim order and ordered that Dhoni file an affidavit. The case was pertaining to Dhoni appearing in a photo in an English magazine in 2013, depicting Lord Vishnu with multiple hands, holding a sports sneaker, a bottle of engine oil, a cool drinks bottle and a packet of potato wafers.