Pune: Wanowrie resident Vishwajeet Masalkar , who was acquitted on Thursday by the Supreme Court for the murders of his mother, wife and daughter in 2012, will walk out of Yerawada prison after the trial court in Pune issues a release order. "The apex court will send a certified copy of its judgment to the Pune sessions court, or the lawyer of the acquitted prisoner can move an application before the sessions court with a copy of the SC judgment, to secure his release order," Yerawada prison superintendent Sunil Dhamal told TOI. "Once this process is completed, the acquitted prisoner will be released," he added.
Masalkar has been lodged in the Yerawada jail since his arrest on Oct 5, 2012. The Pune sessions court convicted and sentenced him to death in 2016. The Bombay high court confirmed the death sentence in 2019.
Masalkar moved SC in Jan 2020. Dhamal said, "As a convict, Masalkar was given work in the handloom section of the prison's industrial unit considering his good conduct. His relatives were allowed to meet him while he was undergoing the sentence.
As of now, the Yerawada prison houses 27 death row convicts. Ten of these convicts are lodged in the general barracks along with other prisoners as per the SC's 2014 guidelines." The guidelines provide that death row convicts for crimes like murder cannot be kept confined either in the high security cell or the ‘anda' (egg shaped) cell unless their mercy petition is decided by the President of India, Dhamal added.
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