Expressing her disapproval over the repeated furloughs being sought by actor Sanjay Dutt, senior advocate and women's rights activist Abha Singh on Wednesday said such leniency granted to the latter clearly shows the misuse of power and money.
"A world record has been created I am sure of the maximum parole and furlough given to any convict. Sanjay Dutt was given a furlough, then an extension, after that a parole of 30 days, again a parole extension of 60 days, making it four months in a year," she told ANI here.
"Which prisoner in any part of the country or world has been given four months parole and furlough?" she asked.
The senior advocate further said the actor is getting this only because he is politically connected.
"He is a star. He has all the money to give around and this clearly shows the misuse of power and money playing a bigger role in this," she added.
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Singh also called for a system overhaul in setting up special courts for parole and furlough to be decided by judges.
"Inquiry needs to be done and now the time has come that these powers given to jail authorities should be taken away," said Singh.
"A special court should be set up to ensure that parole and furlough should be decided by the judges because there must be many prisoners who must be languishing in the jails whose applications would not have been processed. They would not have been given parole or furlough even once," she added.
Dutt, who is currently out on a 14-day furlough from Pune's Yerawada Central Prison since December 24, has made an application for an extension in the jail leave.
Dutt, who is currently serving 42 months of his five year sentence for illegal possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 serial blasts, had been out on parole earlier too on a number of occasions and had sought extension for the same.
