BENGALURU: THE High Court on Thursday directed the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) to constitute a team headed by the Additional Director General of Police or Inspector General of Police to take steps to trace 26 convicts who were reported absconding after they were paroled.
A division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and N K Sudhindra Rao also directed the DG&IGP to submit a report of the progress of the team to the court on August 22. The court’s direction came after it received a status report on the absconding convicts by the authorities of prison and police departments.
Earlier, Public Prosecutor P M Nawaz submitted that 12 weeks time may be granted for the capture of the convicts and a report be submitted to the court about the progress.
Taking note of this, the bench directed the constitution of the team to trace the convicts.
Fly the coop
2,410 convicts for emergency reasons and 3,470 for general reasons released on parole between 2006 and 2014
42 convicts reported absconding
14 absconding convicts traced and lodged back in prison
2 absconding prisoners died
26 untraced as of May 2017
Criminal proceedings initiated
The City Police Commissioner informed the court that they have initiated criminal proceedings against absconding convicts and the people who had given surety to release them on parole.
Case history
The court had taken the matter of the absconding convicts seriously by registering suo motu criminal petition in 2014 after a prisoner went missing following his release on parole.