2006 Surlakar murder: Reconsider early release plea, says high court

Panaji: The high court has set aside the decision of the sentence review board, which had rejected the premature release plea of Shankar Tiwari, one of the four law students sentenced to life for the murder of Mandar Surlakar in 2006. The HC directed the board to reconsider his case for premature release afresh, immediately at its next meeting.
Surlakar was allegedly kidnapped for a Rs 50 lakh ransom by five friends, one of whom later turned approver in the case. Surlakar’s body was found at Keri-Ponda.
Tiwari, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 by the Goa Children’s Court, filed a petition in the HC after the sentence review board in Oct 2024 rejected his plea. The board failed to take into consideration the recommendations of the superintendent of jail, which showed Tiwari’s reformed behaviour, as well as the report of the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, the HC observed.
“When we perused the impugned decision of the board, which rejected the premature release of the petitioner, it appears to us that the board was more under pressure from the father of the victim, who made representations to various govt authorities objecting to the premature release of the convicts,” said the division bench comprising justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta.
The HC added that the board did not have any discussions on the observations of the Goa Children’s Court with regard to Tiwari’s role in the case. This “must deserve consideration from the board,” the HC said.
The Goa Children’s Court, while dealing with the prayer for the imposition of the death sentence, observed that although Tiwari was present at the time of the murder, he did not take any active part in it and at the relevant time was talking in another room.
The court further observed that although he did not stop the other accused from committing the murder, there is no aggravating circumstance as far as he is concerned to consider awarding capital punishment. “The age of Accused No. 3 (Shankar Tiwari) is also to be taken into account, and thus, to my mind, he does not deserve capital punishment as argued by the prosecution,” the Goa Children’s Court had observed.
Tiwari was barely 21 at the time of his arrest and, during incarceration, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in tourism studies through Ignou, his advocate Shivraj Gaonkar submitted to the HC. Gaonkar added that Tiwari also completed diploma courses in business process outsourcing and finance and accounting, as well as the Master of Tourism and Travel Management degree through Ignou.
Gaonkar said that Tiwari is 40 years old today.
When he filed the petition last year, Tiwari had been in jail for 18 years, 11 months, and 15 days, including the period of remission.



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