(This story originally appeared in on Jun 26, 2016)

Pallavi Purkayashtha's killer Sajjad Ahmed Moghul

Pallavi Purkayastha's killer missing since Feb parole for mom's illness, kin say he hasn't come home

The family of the security guard, who killed lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012 in her Wadala apartment after she resisted his attempt to rape her, paid a surety of just Rs 7000 to secure his freedom from the Nashik Central Prison on parole in February this year.The guard Sajjad Ahmed Moghul, a resident of Uri in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, has since jumped parole and disappeared, raising questions over why the jail authorities were so lenient with somebody sentenced to life imprisonment for a heinous crime.Surety is a bond which a person standing surety for a convict or an accused signs.The bond is an assurance from the person signing it that the concerned convict or accused will adhere to the conditions set by the authorities. The bond amount in parole cases is decided by the competent authority — in this case the Nashik divisional commissioner — and the person standing surety is liable to lose the money if the parole conditions are violated.However, in this case, where Moghul has not reported back to jail for nearly three months after the expiry of the parole, the question to ask is this — would his father Abdul Aziz Moghul, who paid Rs 5000 of the surety amount, and his brother Taufiq Moghul, who paid the rest, really mind losing the money?While the Nashik Central Prison and divisional commissioner bungled on many counts — releasing Moghul on parole just a year into his life sentence and setting a ridiculously low surety amount — the Uri police too acted casually. As per the conditions set by the Nashik Central Prison, Moghul was supposed to report to the Uri police station every day during his parole period (from February 29 to March 23). But he did not mark his presence at the police station even once and the Uri police chose to not alert their counterparts in Nashik about this.According to the Nashik prison authorities, the Uri police stirred into action only after the superintendent of police's office in Baramulla district was sent two letters. The Uri police subsequently responded saying that inquiries made with the family had revealed that Moghul never reached Uri nor did he visit his ailing mother. "Police officials from Uri are responsible for his disappearance," said Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Deshmukh of Nashik Road police station.Uri police officials, however, deny all the charges made by the Nashik jail authorities. According to a senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer, who did not wish to be identified, the Uri police did not even know that Moghul was being released on parole. "If we had information that he had been released, we would have kept a check on his movements or contacted his family members when he did not register attendance," he said.Pallavi's father Atanu Purkayastha has already expressed shock at how the police in Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir let his daughter's killer walk away after serving just one year post-conviction of his life imprisonment. He is likely to arrive in the city next month to take up the matter with the state government.Meanwhile, sources in Uri police said that Moghul was spotted near his residence on June 2, but disappeared soon after that.Moghul's father works as a labourer in Shimla and was not in Uri when police officials came to check. Uri police also did not find Moghul's brother Taufiq at his residence.Police teams in Mumbai and Nashik are now verifying whether the medical certificates provided by Moghul's family about his mother's illness was authentic.