Nagpur prison officer guilty of contempt of court on 41 counts. Gets 7 days jail

A two-judge bench of the high court’s Nagpur bench comprising justices Vinay Deshpande and Amit Borkar ruled that Nagpur central jail superintendent Anup Kumre was guilty of contempt of court on 41 counts.

NAGPUR: A senior officer of Nagpur central prisons who rejected emergency parole requests of some eligible prisoners and granted parole to others was sentenced to seven days imprisonment for contempt of court by the Bombay high court on Wednesday.

(Representative image)

A two-judge bench of the high court’s Nagpur bench comprising justices Vinay Deshpande and Amit Borkar ruled that Nagpur central jail superintendent Anup Kumre was guilty of contempt of court on 41 counts.

The court ruled that the prison superintendent did not release 35 eligible jail inmates on emergency parole during the Covid-19 pandemic but let out six ineligible inmates,

Kumre has also been ordered to pay a ₹5,000 fine for misusing his powers to grant parole and the state government told to take departmental action against him.

On Thursday, the jail department suspended Anup Kumre in view of the court ruling. “We have suspended him after the court verdict,” said Swati Sathe, deputy inspector general of Jail, Nagpur division.

The bench has given Kumre 10 weeks to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the contempt verdict.

The order was passed in a petition filed by a prisoner, Hanuman Pendam, who complained that his request for parole during the Covid-19 pandemic was rejected by the jail officer on the ground that he was 14 days late to return the jail when he was last released on parole.

In his affidavit, the jail superintendent submitted a list of 63 prisoners granted parole, and said that 90 other prisoners were denied emergency parole since they were not eligible under the rules. He also submitted details of six prisoners who reported late after taking leave earlier.

The court asked Nagpur-based lawyer Firdos Mirza to act as amicus curiae to study the case and submit a complete report to the court.

Mirza pointed out that the name of one prisoner, who had reported seven days late after leaving earlier, was on the list of 63 prisoners granted parole. There was another prisoner, who exceeded his leave by seven days but was still released.

After noticing several contradictions in Kumre’s affidavit, the court ordered the commissioner of police and additional chief secretary (jail and prisons) to initiate a departmental enquiry for contempt.

The Nagpur police commissioner entrusted the inquiry to DCP (Detection) Crime Branch Chinmay Pandit who found Kumre guilty.