For Delhi’s lifers, release after 14 yrs becomes a board game

SRB meets once this year, dampening chances of early release of prisoners serving life sentence in Delhi jails. 862 men, 44 women serving life sentence. Sharda Jain, Manu Sharma released after board cleared their names. HC directs authorities to convene meeting periodically. SRB considered 247 cases this year.

Delhi’s Sentence Review Board (SRB) has met only once this year against the mandatory requirement of four meetings a year, dampening chances of the early release of the prisoners serving life sentence in city jails.

The six-member SRB decides whether convicts undergoing a life term can be released prematurely upon completing 14 years.

The board is chaired by the Minister in-charge of prisons and includes the Principal Secretary (Home) and the Director General (Prisons) as members. In September last year, there were 862 men and 44 women serving life sentence in the Delhi jails.

Among the many convicts awaiting representation before the board is Sharda Jain, a former Congress councillor who was convicted of killing her fellow party councillor Atma Ram Gupta in August 2002. She has already served around 17 years in prison.

A convict whose plea is rejected by the board gets another chance to put up his/her case after a period of six months.

Among such convicts is Rajeev, alias Diwanji. He was convicted of murder and given life sentence. He has spent almost 18 years in prison but his plea for early release was rejected in the meeting held last December. He is now eligible for reconsideration. Manu Sharma, sentenced to life after being convicted of the murder of model Jessica Lal in 1999, was released after the board cleared his name in May 2020.

In Delhi, after the board clears a name, the file is sent to the Lieutenant-Governor for approval.