Ranchi: Jharkhand high court has set aside the State Sentence Review Board’s March 25 decision rejecting life convict Anil Sharma’s plea for premature release and directed it to reconsider the case at its next meeting.Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay, in an Oct 13 order, said the board could not confine its scrutiny to the gravity of the offence. It must pass a fresh, reasoned order after examining relevant factors, including Sharma’s present socio-economic condition, prison conduct, health and the likelihood of his committing an offence after release.Sharma, now over 65, has spent more than 26 years in actual custody and more than 29 years with remission, according to his plea. He argued that he qualified for consideration under the applicable remission policy.The case goes back to Jan 22, 1999, when Sudhir Kumar Singh, alias Bhoma Singh, was killed inside the jail hospital ward of Birsa Munda Central Jail, Ranchi. Sharma was convicted in 2002. The trial court awarded him death, but the high court commuted it to life imprisonment on Nov 29, 2002. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in 2004. The state opposed his release, citing public order and gang war concerns.
