Justice Sanjeev Narula of the Delhi High Court held a special sitting on Sunday and granted a four-week parole to a gang-rape convict named Tasleem, whose sister died this morning [Tasleem v State of NCT of Delhi]. 

The parole application was mentioned to Justice Narula’s Court Master at around 10 AM. By around 12:30 PM, Justice Narula held the Court through virtual mode. 

Tasleem’s lawyer, Sarthak Maggon, the Delhi Police Sub-Inspector and the State’s lawyer joined the court virtually as well. 

After considering the application and the circumstances, the Court ordered the 55-year-old Tasleem’s immediate release. 

Tasleem’s sister, aged 60, was suffering from post-tuberculosis lung complications and was on long-term oxygen therapy. She was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on November 6. 

On November 7, the Court granted Tasleem a custody parole for a day, allowing him to meet his ailing sister the next day between 10 AM to 5 PM.

He was arrested for the gang-rape of a woman in 1997 and awarded life imprisonment for the offence in 1999. His appeals against the conviction were rejected by the High Court in 2015 and by the Supreme Court two years later.

Notably, while hearing the same case, the High Court had on October 8 pulled up the Sentence Review Board (SRB) for the “superficial and perfunctory manner in which the matter is being handled”.

“This Court has, over the past months, been dealing with numerous petitions concerning premature release, and in each such matter, meaningful adjudication depends upon the existence of a uniform and rational procedure consistent with the directions issued in Santosh Kumar Singh,” the Court had said. 

It had ordered the Delhi Government’s Home Secretary and the Director General of Prisons) to appear before the Court on November 24.