NAGPUR, May 2: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court today observed that there was sufficient evidence on record to hold the three jail superintendents guilty of negligence of their statutory duties in allowing underworld don Arun Gawli to conduct his criminal activities from jail between March 19 and December '96.

The division bench comprising Justices Ashok Desai and SB Mhase reserved till Monday its judgement on whether the Inspector General of Prisons, Maharashtra, and three jail superintendents should be saddled with ``exemplary'' damages for their failure in preventing Gawli from conducting his criminal activities.

The court launched an inquiry on its own into the lapses of jail administration after going through the government's statement that Gawli was carrying on his criminal activities like extortion and contract killings from inside the Yerwada jail near Pune and Harsul jail near Aurangabad during his detention there.

The government's statement was in response to the petition filed by Gawli's wife Asha against his recent detention under the National Security Act. Referring to the statements filed by Mumbai Police Commissioner S C Malhotra and Additional Chief Secretary (Home) P Subramaniam, the court said the government, in justification of Gawli's detention on February 16 had pointed out that Gawli was holding ``durbar'' and hatching conspiracies from inside the jails and observed that it could not be possible without the cooperation or connivance of the officers in charge of the concerned prisons.

The jail officers who were issued notices by the court in the wake of its inquiry were DM Jadhav, superintendent of Yerwada prison, MJ Ghorpade, superintendent of Harsul prison, and LT Sumdrawar, predecessor of Ghorpate. They were personally present in the court. The court discharged DJ Choudhary, former superintendent of Yerwada prison, as he was not posted there during the relevant period. The court noted that in some cases, the jail authorities did not record the names of the visitors to Gawli. Even the victims of Gawli's ransom demand were presented to him in jail. Five persons fell victim to Gawli's conspiracies. ``It seems the jail manual did not apply to Gawli,'' Justice Mhase remarked.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.