Cops to charge fixed amount for escorting prisoners
| Date :09-May-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
Prisoners will henceforth have to fork out a fixed amount for police escort during their parole period. State's Home Department has framed the policy and issued a Government Resolution (GR) on Monday for Maharashtra Police after guidelines issued by Bombay High Court while disposing of a writ petition. As per the GR, state police will levy charges on prisoners for providing police escort and also bill them the vehicle expenditure incurred by the cops.
The amount will have to be paid in advance before granting parole to a prisoner. In emergency parole cases, the amount can be deposited within a period of 15-days. If a prisoner fails to deposit the amount then police can levy 9.5 per cent interest on the due amount. A senior officer of Maharashtra Prison Department (MPD) stated that the escorts are provided to dreaded goons or the prisoner who faces threat to their life. The application of prisoner seeking police escort is forwarded to police department once Parole request is accepted. Further the official added that requisite amount for police sector is needed to be deposited with the respective police unit.
While disposing a criminal writ petition Dilip Sopan Pawar vs the State of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court noted affidavit filed by Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) that there was no policy with State Government regarding charging for police escort to prisoners on parole. Thus in absence of such Rules or guidelines, arbitrary amount is being recovered from the prisoners by way of deposit towards the charges of escort. Therefore, HC directed State to take appropriate decision by laying down the policy/guidelines and fixing of charges of the police escort in cases in which emergency parole is granted.