On Friday, the Bombay High Court granted temporary bail to Sohail Salim Ansari, a life sentence convict, allowing him to attend the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) on May 30, 2024, for admission to the five-year law program.

A vacation bench of Justice NR Borkar and Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan observed, “It appears that the Applicant is in jail for about nine years. It further appears that during trial he was on bail for some period and he did not misuse the liberty granted to him. Considering the said facts, we are inclined to release the Applicant on temporary bail for a period of one week.”

Ansari, who has been in jail for nine years following his conviction in December 2021 for the murder of Shiv Sena functionary Ramesh Baban Jadhav, sought temporary bail to take the entrance exam. He, along with three others, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Sessions in Dindoshi.

Ansari filed an appeal against the judgment and submitted an interim application for suspension of his sentence. He also challenged the prison authorities' rejection of his furlough request.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde opposed the grant of regular bail. However, the court took note that Ansari had previously been granted bail during his trial without misusing the liberty afforded to him.

Advocate Irfan Unwala, representing Ansari, presented the admit card for the exam as evidence in support of his plea for temporary bail.

Taking into account that Ansari had already spent nine years in jail and that his appeal against the conviction was still pending, the court made the decision to grant him temporary release on a cash bail of Rs. 15,000 for one week, until May 31, 2024.

The court directed that the bail be furnished before the Trial Court and set the application for further consideration before the Regular Court. Ansari is obligated to return to Paithan Open Jail, his current place of confinement, on May 31, 2024. Ansari's conviction stems from an incident on October 21, 2014, in Malad East, where he and several others engaged in a violent altercation resulting in the death of Ramesh Baban Jadhav.

After the trial, the Additional Sessions Judge at Dindoshi convicted Ansari and his co-accused on December 23, 2021, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder, alongside other charges such as assault and criminal intimidation.

Case no. – Sohail Salim Ansair v. State of Maharashtra