Gujarat: He wants to move freely, to get back to jail

AHMEDABAD: This bootlegger was incarcerated for getting others inebriated, but now he has hit a bottleneck.

He cannot cross the Rajasthan border to enter Gujarat to surrender to Palanpur jail authorities.

While thousands of migrants are unable to cross the Gujarat border to reach their own states, Prakash Vishnoi - the Rajasthan bootlegger - who was on temporary bail , has the opposite problem.

He has filed a petition in the Gujarat high court seeking to be permitted to cross the border so that the genie can be put back into the bottle, as it were.

Vishnoi could not surrender within the deadline set by the high court because Gujarat Police did not give him the get-into-jail free card due to the lockdown. He pleaded that delayed surrender would reflect on his jail behaviour and put on the rocks his chances of getting bail in the future.

Vishnoi was lodged in Palanpur jail after he was arrested with two others when a truck entering Gujarat from Rajasthan was found to have liquor worth Rs 48 lakh last year. He did not get regular bail because of his criminal antecedents. Eight excise violations have been registered against him in Rajasthan and two prohibition cases in Gujarat.

The high court had granted him temporary bail and his bail period ended on May 7.

Last week, Vishnoi submitted before the high court that he was ready to surrender within two days provided Gujarat Police did not bar his entry. Justice V P Patel permitted Vishnoi to surrender by Monday and asked the jail authorities to take him into custody. The high court has posted further hearing on this matter on May 26.

Lockdown has made surrendering tough for others too. Javid Mogul from Gir-Somnath district has been locked out of central jail in Rajkot, his current home. He could not travel from his village, Chamoda in Veraval taluka. He has been out on bail since March, and his bail period was extended because of the lockdown.

The high court ordered him to surrender by Monday, but reaching Rajkot was impossible for Mogul because public transport was not available.

The high court ordered police authorities to give Mogul a ride. Jail authorities have been ordered to adhere to Covid-19 guidelines when admitting prisoners.