Mumbai: Welcoming the move of two death row convicts to pursue education, the Bombay high court has asked prison authorities to “to extend all necessary assistance by adopting humanitarian approach to the desire of the petitioners”.
A division bench of Justices P B Varale and S M Modak recently allowed the petition filed by Jitendra Shinde alias Pappu and Nitin Bhailume, who have been sentenced to death for their role in the gruesome Kopardi rape and murder case of 2016. They are at present lodged at Yerawada Central Jail in Pune.
The HC said: “We further observe that as the petitioners have expressed their desire to pursue academic courses in Open University, such desire be treated as welcome steps and the prison authorities extend all necessary assistance by adopting humanitarian approach to the desire of the petitioners.”
Shinde and Bhailume expressed desire to pursue academic careers at open universities -- Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University and Indira Gandhi National Open University -- while incarcerated. Hence, they approached the HC in 2019.
An affidavit was filed by the Superintendent, Yerawada Central Jail, Pune, on April 3, 2021, listing the courses offered by the two open universities. It said that the process for admission in the academic year 2022-2023 had not yet started at one of the universities. It, however, assured that as soon as the process would begin at the open university, the necessary steps would be taken to admit the petitioners.
Advocate Rebecca Gonsalvez, appearing for the convicts, submitted that as per her instructions, the admission process had already been initiated.
Following this, the HC directed the prison authorities of the Yerawada Central Jail to seek necessary opinion from officials at the universities regarding the admission process and then take appropriate steps for the admission of the accused to the course of their choice.
The case
In 2016, three men brutally raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district. The Class 9 student was so brutally tortured that her hair had been pulled out, her limbs and teeth had been broken and there were bite marks on her body.
The three culprits -- Jitendra Babulal Shinde, 26, Santosh Gorakh Bhawal, 30, and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume, 28 -- were held guilty of rape, murder and conspiracy and were punished to be hanged to death by the Ahmednagar District Sessions Court in November 2017.
Since the victim belonged to the Maratha community, silent marches were taken up by the Marathas across the state against the three culprits who belonged to the Dalit community. They demanded a quick investigation and a speedy trial in the case.
The case had rocked the Maharashtra Assembly during the monsoon session at that time. The then chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, had said the accused had been arrested and the matter would be heard in a fast-track court.
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