Have Money Buy Parole: Rich India Gets Away

Have Money Buy Parole: Rich India Gets Away: The controversy surrounding murder convict Manu Sharma’s parole ended with his dramatic surrender on Tuesday. The 34-year-old businessman, who is convicted of murdering former model Jessica Lal, was granted a two-month parole on September 22 on the grounds that his mother was seriously ill. However, Manu and his friends were found partying and allegedly misbehaving with girls at clubs in the Capital

Have Money Buy Parole: Rich India Gets Away:The controversy surrounding murder convict Manu Sharma’s parole ended with his dramatic surrender on Tuesday. The 34-year-old businessman, who is convicted of murdering former model Jessica Lal, was granted a two-month parole on September 22 on the grounds that his mother was seriously ill. However, Manu and his friends were found partying and allegedly misbehaving with girls at clubs in the Capital.

Manu’s misuse of his parole has reopened the debate over whether the rich and powerful can fool the system and get away with violating laws. The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN’s Face The Nation was: Manu Sharma case: Are India’s rich accountable to no one?

To try and answer the question on the panel of experts were: Chairman London Institute of Corporate Training, Alyque Padamsee; lawyer Rebecca John, former joint commissioner of police Delhi, Maxwell Pereira and Managing Partner Counselage Suhel Seth.

At the start of the show, 72 per cent of those who voted in said yes, India’s rich aren’t accountable to anyone while 28 per cent disagreed.

Parole Politics

Opening the debate, Rebecca John said it is not true that the rich and influential people always get away with violating laws. She held the administration responsible for Manu Sharma’s parole fiasco.

“The administration should have done a stringent verification of the grounds which were placed in the record for parole. The verification obviously did not take place and clearly Manu Sharma got away with it,” Rebecca said.

However, she agreed that in matters of parole the vast majority of people who are poor and are languishing in Indian jails do not get the benefit of the parole.

“Although their (poor) applications are pending for months the administration rarely accepts them sympathetically or compassionately. However, if you are rich and powerful it is easier for you to get it,” Rebecca said.

Seconding Rebecca’s opinion, Maxwell Pereira said it is because of their reach and contacts that the rich get paroles and easy legal aid.

“Money can buy anything in this country,” he said.

India’s Uncivilised Rich

Joining the debate, Suhel Seth said power works in different ways. Citing the case of Manu Sharma, he said it was because Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadwal’s son complained about Manu that the police took action against him.

“It is not only about being rich but it is also about who you know and how well you know them,” he said