5 Duke of Cornwall Dr. Markham ON [email protected]

The Bombay High Court on Friday cut the police escort charge from Rs 2.55 lakh to Rs 50,000 for a lifer lodged in Yerawada central prison in a 1993 Mumbai blast case to attend his son’s wedding in the coming week.

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The prison authorities in Pune had asked the convict, Riyaz Ahmed Siddique, to pay Rs. 2.55 lakh for four days’ parole. After Siddique claimed financial constraints, the court found the cost—only 50 per cent of the actual expenses, according to the prison authorities—to be “exorbitant” and slashed it to Rs 50,000.

Siddique first approached the deputy inspector general (prison) seeking emergency parole. On January 31 his application was allowed subject to the condition that he will foot the bill for the police escorts. The nikah is slated for March 14.

Siddique, referring to the high court’s past judgments and amendments in escort  rules, applied to the prisons DIG for a waiver of the charges citing his financial constraints. The DIG on March 8 granted Siddique parole for four days on the condition that he would bear half the escort cost.

His counsel, Farhana Shah, challenged the March 8 order in the court and requested that Siddique be allowed to avail of parole on a personal and surety bond, without paying any escort charges.

Shah told the court that Siddique had five sons, of whom two lived abroad while the others were into small businesses such as poultry business and sale of old vehicles. She also stated that the family’s main source of income was the poultry business.

MH Mhatre, appearing for the prison authorities, submitted that the DIG had already waived 50 per cent of the actual cost considering the financial status of Siddique’s family members and the offences he was convicted of.

After hearing the submissions, the court found “considerable merit” in the contention that Rs 2.55 lakh for four days was an “exorbitant amount” for Siddique.

“Considering the financial condition of the petitioner and requirement of the state to deploy certain officials as escorts to the petitioner, we are of the opinion that the order impugned in the petition needs to be modified. The writ petition is partly allowed. We direct the petitioner to deposit the escort expenses to the state to the tune of Rs 50,000 by March 12,” the court said.

The court clarified that the order was based on peculiar circumstances and would therefore not be considered as a precedent for future cases.

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