DNA
- Sentenced to life for murder, he spent a year more in jail
Mumbai, Jan 14: Released after 24 years with remissions in prison, Malad resident Ramzan Khan, 34, is an aggrieved man. Khan was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and released in early December 2007 following a Supreme Court order of November 2007.
He should have been released in 2005, however, due to a dispute over the category of murder he was placed under by the state government, he had to spend over a year and half more in jail.
“I cannot retrieve the days I have lost, but there are more people in prisons who are detained for periods longer than their sentences. This should not happen to anybody else,” he said. Khan’s advocate Neel Gawankar said they will now sue the state government and demand compensation.
Khan had first moved the Bombay High Court in February 2007 contending that as per the guidelines, his case fell under category 3 (a) where murder is committed without premeditation and the person has no criminal history, and therefore, has to serve 22 years in prison with remissions.
On June 6, 1990, Khan got into a brawl outside a liquor shop and in a fit of rage, murdered Balkrishna Shetty, who tried to intervene. He was, however, categorised under 3 (d) of the guidelines where murder is committed with exceptional violence or perversity and the prisoner has to serve a sentence of 26 years.
The court held that Khan was rightly placed under 3(d) category as the murder he committed was premeditated.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the government was wrong in placing him under 3 (d) as the murder was committed without exceptional violence or perversity. “The High Court was also not right in upholding the said order,” the Supreme Court noted.
Khan is now working as a labourer for Rs 200 per day. “I wish to join a driving school so that I can make a decent living as a driver,” said Khan, who lives in Quarry Road in Malad with his brother’s family. “If the government compensates me monetarily, my life can be back on track,” he said.