High court summons Maharashtra home dept secretary over parole-jumping issue

The Bombay high court today summoned a secretary in the Maharashtra home department over the issue of huge number of absconding convicts.

On the last occasion, the court had been informed that over 18,000 convicts who were granted parole (temporary bail) were missing in the state, majority of them from Mumbai.

"The court wants to know what steps government is going to take on this issue, that's why concerned secretary has been called," prosecution sources said.

The secretary will have to appear before division bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar on October 22.

The court took notice of this situation while hearing an individual convict's case some months ago.