MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, who is serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 2007 murder of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar. Gawli, convicted in 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs17 lakh, argued that he had met all the conditions outlined in the 2006 remission policy.
However, a bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran declined to overturn the Bombay High Court’s decision, which had previously denied him bail.
Earlier, on January 7, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court granted Gawli a 28-day furlough. He had petitioned the high court after his initial request for release was turned down by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons, East Division, Nagpur.
Gawli, who rose to prominence in Mumbai’s underworld from Dagdi Chawl in Byculla, later ventured into politics, founding the Akhil Bharatiya Sena. He served as an MLA from the Chinchpokli constituency between 2004 & 2009. Arrested in 2006, he was tried and ultimately convicted for Jamsandekar’s murder in 2012.