Actor jumped parole twice, dodged absconder tag

Ahmedabad: The cameras kept rolling, and the roles kept coming as nobody realised that Hemant Nagindas Modi had a life sentence hanging over him. The 54-year-old, arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch last week, allegedly spent nearly 12 years on the run after jumping parole — not once, as everyone believed, but twice. And he never got caught because, despite the two violations, his name was never officially listed as an absconder on the National Prison Portal, police admitted.The case has exposed serious loopholes in coordination between prisons and police.Crime branch officers accepted that the absence of his name from the central prison database may have played a major role in helping him stay off the radar for nearly 12 years despite being a life convict in a murder case. “There appears to have been no proper updating of the records after his parole and furlough violations. His details were not reflected in the National Prison Portal, which complicated tracking efforts,” a senior officer said.The startling gap in coordination has come under scrutiny after Modi was arrested from a rented accommodation near Gheekanta Metro Station, following a tip-off during tenant verification formalities. Officers said he had been quietly living under the alias “Spandan Kumar”.Modi was among seven persons convicted for the murder of Narendra Kamble in Parshwanath township in Naroda on June 12, 2005, allegedly over a property dispute. They were sentenced to life imprisonment on Aug 27, 2008.According to the police, jail records show that Modi first jumped furlough in 2008 itself. He was granted leave till Oct 25 that year and later sought an extension from then jail IG Keshav Kumar, citing his mother’s illness. The extension was reportedly granted till Nov 4, 2008, but Modi allegedly never returned to Sabarmati Central Jail.Police sources said that, despite this, there wasno clear record in the police files categorising him as an absconder. Police claim that even senior officers in Ahmedabad and Mehsana were not fully aware that Modi had allegedly violated parole conditions twice because no consolidated database entry existed.The only documented parole jump currently available with the crime branch relates to July 25, 2014, when Modi was granted one-month parole by the Gujarat high court, following which he allegedly vanished again.Documents accessed by TOI show that the National Prison Portal currently lists the names of 1,115 parole absconders across the country. Still, Modi’s name does not appear on the ‘absconders list’ despite the two alleged violations.“There is a serious lack of coordination between prison authorities and police agencies when it comes to updating records of absconding convicts,” a senior officer acknowledged. “That creates major gaps in enforcement and allows such individuals to roam freely for years.”Adding another layer of irony to the case, officers said that Modi had — an aspiring legal eagle before the murder case landed him behind bars — passed the exam for judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) in 2008 while he was an undertrial, that too with flying colours. After clearing the written test, he even received an interview call letter from the high court and was among 411 successful candidates.Facing a murder trial meant he could not go. Modi sought bail to appear for the oral test, “but withdrew his application in May 2008 after the judge declined the plea”, said an officer.Crime branch officials are now probing how Modi allegedly managed to secure documents, rent properties and continue moving freely for years despite allegedly absconding after parole and furlough.