The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted gangster turned politician Arun Gawli a 28-day furlough from April 30, a day after Mumbai votes in the Lok Sabha elections. The state government had objected to Gawli’s furlough, saying he should not be released since Lok Sabha polls were under way and he could breach the model code of conduct. A division bench of Justice ZA Haq and Justice Vinay Joshi directed that the furlough period begin from April 30. Gawli’s lawyer Rajendra Daga told court that his client had not violated any of the conditions when he was released on parole on six occasions earlier and had surrendered on the dates fixed. Gawli, lodged in the Nagpur central jail since 2016, is serving life sentence for the 2007 killing of Shiv Sena corporator Kamalakar Jamsandekar. He was convicted in 2012. Gawli, 63, had also forayed into politics and floated a party Akhil Bharatiya Sena. He was elected as an MLA in 2004.

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