During surprise raids conducted by high ranking jail authorities, gross irregularities were found in the procedure for granting parole to the convicts charged with heinous crimes of murder, dacoity, kidnapping, extortion, threat for ransom, etc. The authorities noted that once such criminals go out on parole, in most of the cases they never return back. They resume criminal activities, especially threatening people for heavy ransoms. This was evident after the arrest of a hard core criminal Kuldip Shahpuria who had threatened two local industrialists to pay Rs 10 lakh each after jumping parole. Similarly, accomplices of notorious gangster Joginder Geong have been indulging in the ransom business for quite some time now. The jail authorities found that convicted criminals manage to get frequent paroles through corrupt practices or muscle power. At present, as many as 250 criminals in Haryana have jumped paroles and are still absconding.

The authorities have come across one such case in Kurukshetra jail where a person convicted for rigorous imprisonment of five years by the Fast Track Court managed to get parole within few days of his conviction. According to sources, Kuldip Singh, a resident of Gobhardhanpur in Fatehgarh Sahib district (Punjab), was awarded five year rigorous imprisonment for attempt to murder, extortion and cheating. Kuldip applied for a parole on October 31, 2007, but he was granted permission on October 27 even before he applied for it. According to sources, his father-in-law is an influential person who managed to get the sanction of jail authorities and the police. It was also found that no entries were made in the jail’s visitors’ register about frequent meetings of Kuldip with his father-in-law while he was in the jail.

According to sources, the permission for his parole of three weeks got sanctioned within a week and officially he was released on November 6. His application routed through the Police Department, DC office and civil hospital. He got the parole on the ground that his wife was sick and was suffering from depression and might commit suicide.

However, when parole was sanctioned, his wife was declared absconding and discharged from the hospital. Interestingly, the Jail Superintendent wrote to the SHO Ismailabad and SP to register a case under Parole Act, but no case was registered.