The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, who is serving a life sentence for the 2007 murder of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.

A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran upheld the Bombay High Court’s decision, which had earlier rejected Gawli’s bail plea. The court declined to interfere with the ruling despite Gawli's claim that he had met all the conditions of the 2006 remission policy.

Earlier, on January 7, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had granted Gawli a 28-day furlough. He had moved the court after his release request was turned down by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons, East Division, Nagpur.

Once a dominant figure in Mumbai’s underworld, Gawli rose to prominence from Dagdi Chawl in Byculla and later founded the Akhil Bharatiya Sena. He also served as an MLA from the Chinchpokli constituency between 2004 and 2009.

Arrested in 2006, Gawli was put on trial for Jamsandekar’s murder, and in August 2012, a sessions court in Mumbai sentenced him to life imprisonment, along with a fine of ₹17 lakh.