PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on the premature release plea filed by Nafiyaz Shaikh, one of the convicts in the 2006 Mandar Surlakar murder case, to the week commencing October 12.
Shaikh sought premature release, pointing out that three co-convicts -- Rohan Pai Dhungat, Jovito Ryan Dos Remedios Pinto and Shankar Tiwari -- have already been released after a High Court order last month.
The Bench, however, deferred the matter after noting that the Supreme Court is likely to hear the Goa government’s Special Leave Petitions challenging the premature release orders, in the first week of October.
On August 6, the High Court quashed the State government’s rejection of premature release for Dhungat, Pinto and Tiwari and directed their release. They were subsequently released.
The court held that remission cannot be denied solely because of the heinous nature of the original offence or based on a demand for “absolute certainty” about a convict’s future conduct.
The four law students were convicted in 2014 for kidnapping and murdering 16-year-old Surlakar in August 2006 in a ransom conspiracy. Their life sentences were upheld by the High Court in 2019.
The State Sentence Review Board had recommended their premature release in 2025, citing good conduct, educational achievements and rehabilitation. The government subsequently rejected the recommendations.
