Do only film stars deserve humane treatment, asks Bombay HC

Apparently pointing to the lenient approach taken by the state government regarding the actor Sanjay Dutt, the Bombay High Court has ordered grant of parole to a fellow convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Hearing the petition filed by Mohd Yakub Abdul Majid Nagul, lodged here in Central jail, division bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Atul Chandurkar of the Nagpur bench of High Court said yesterday that it was distressing to see that a man lost his daughter, but was still denied the parole.

"Don't you have a humane approach, or it is only the film stars that you act humanly towards?" the bench said, apparently referring to Dutt, convicted in the same case for illegal possession of arms, who has repeatedly got parole extensions.

Nagul, a Mumbai resident, is serving a life sentence. His lawyer, advocate Mir Nagman Ali, argued that Nagul's wife wrote to the Nagpur divisional commissioner and the jail authorities seeking his release on parole on February 14, as their daughter had died three days earlier.

But even after ten days, there was no decision. The court directed the jail authorities to grant him parole forthwith, following which he was released last evening, his lawyer said.