Furlough for killer of Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez; no adverse report cited

MUMBAI:

Jitendra Rana

alias Chaina (30), the prime accused in the 2011 murder of

Keenan

Santos and

Reuben

Fernandez, will soon be out of prison on a

furlough

leave. The

Bombay high court

recently allowed Rana’s furlough application and asked police authorities to obtain necessary bonds from him and his guarantor besides placing conditions to facilitate his release.

“The furlough arrangement has been statutorily made so as to enable the convict to maintain contacts with his family and society. We, therefore, find that the reasons assigned (by the police to oppose his release) are unsustainable. The authorities, while releasing Rana on furlough leave, can impose appropriate conditions, including one requiring him and his relatives to report at a particular police station at regular intervals,” said a division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash Naik.

A furlough leave of 14 days, which can be extended by another fortnight, is available to a convict who has spent two years in jail. Rana’s plea for furlough leave from prison was rejected in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, the high court, too, had rejected his application saying that there was danger to the life of the witness as well as the complainant girl and her family if he was released as he had a tendency to take revenge.

In 2016, the sessions court had convicted Rana and three others—Satish Dulgaj, Sunil Both and Deepak Piwal—for attacking and murdering Keenan and Reuben outside a restaurant in Andheri in 2011. Keenan and Reuben had objected to the accused sexually harassing their women friends. The court has sentenced the quartet to prison for the remainder of their lives.

While opposing the furlough plea, additional public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde said the girls, their families and other witnesses live in the same neighbourhood. The court remarked that Oshiwara police had not submitted any adverse report against Rana or that his work and conduct in prison was unsatisfactory.

“(The authorities) do not have any other material, except apprehension in their mind that Rana may jump furlough and may not return to prison,” said the high court while quashing the orders rejecting his application.