Court seeks police verification to decide on parole plea of ’93 blast convict

A vacation Bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday asked for a police verification report examining the claims made by Abdul Gani Turk, a convict on death row, who had sought a day's release from prison to attend his daughter's wedding.

Turk's application filed through his lawyer Farhana Shah states that he may be escorted to the wedding by jail staff and he will bear the expenses for the same.

Turk's daughter, the youngest among his five children, is scheduled to get married on June 4, he has contended.

Turk has been held guilty in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case and sentenced to death. Since Turk is on death row, the jail authorities do not have the power to decide his application. Although the Supreme Court is yet to confirm the death sentence awarded to Turk by the special TADA court in 2006, his punishment has not been suspended and he continues to be on death row.

Convicts on death row are not entitled to be released on parole or furlough like other prisoners. However, they can seek the court's permission to seek release from prison on certain days.

Turk, who was arrested on March 18, 1993 for his alleged involvement in the serial blasts that killed 257, has contended that he was allowed to attend his mother's funeral at his Dongri residence in 2009 and urged the court to let him attend his daughter's wedding.

Asking the police to file a verification report, the court adjourned the case till June 1.

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