REVIEW PAROLE SYSTEM

IN what could only be called a farce and total contempt for the justice system in India, Manu Sharma went back to Tihar Jail on Tuesday with the same nonchalance with which he had stepped outside it while going on parole.

 

While this may bring temporary closure to l'affaire Manu Sharma the episode tells us why there should be greater scrutiny of the parole system as it exists.

 

For one, Sharma was in violation of parole from Day One, when it became clear that his " ageing" mother was campaigning for her husband, Congressman Venod Sharma, who was contesting the assembly polls from Haryana in October. Second, to give parole to a murder convict to take care of his business interests back home is like paroling a pickpocket and asking him to travel in a crowded train just so he could take care of business.

 

However, the tragicomic part of the sordid drama is Manu Sharma's letter to his mother in which he claimed that the media had targeted him and that he was returning to jail so as not to bring further anguish to her. So far, even for the record, Mr Sharma has shown no anguish or remorse for taking the life of an innocent person. In fact the victim's family and civil society had the right to be anguished at the blatant display of cronyism by Congress politicians in giving Mr Manu Sharma parole and letting loose a convicted murderer in the city without as much as a warning.