Prisoner confesses after being inspired by Gandhi's book

Mumbai: A hardcore criminal lodged in Nashik Central Jail has written letters of apology to the victims he had beaten up, harassed and terrified through extortion and also confessed to his crimes after reading Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography.

Laxman Tukaram Gole's change of heart and mind may sound like a story out of a film like Lage Raho Munna Bhai in which actor Sanjay Dutt, playing a smalltime crook, begins seeing the true philosophy of Gandhi in daily life.

"But my life is real," said Gole, 30, while speaking at a press conference organised by the Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal, a Gandhian institution, on Monday.

"After reading My Experiments With Truth, the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, I was determined to follow Gandhi's path of truth and non-violence," he said.

Application

"I did not want to waste the time of the court and so wrote an application on June 5 2007 to the metropolitan magistrate's court at Vikhroli that I confess to my crime and requested the judge to end the proceedings of my case."

His letter also stated that Gandhi's book influenced him into speaking the truth.

Till then, Gole had 19 cases for scuffles, threat, dispute, threatening and beating people filed against him by Chirag Nagar police station, Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

He was let off in 18 cases and confessed to his crime in the last case for which he was convicted and sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment under Sections 384 and 506 of the Indian Penal code and 135 of the Bombay Police Act and ordered to pay a fine of Rs1,050 (Dh100). He had already spent 18 months in Thane Central Jail as an undertrial.

Special Metropolitan Magistrate, M.B. Gosavi, considered his case sympathetically and ordered that his punishment will run concurrently, thus reducing the two-year jail term.

The Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal has deposited Gole's fine of Rs1,050 and he will be released soon.

The new-born Gandhian's foray into crime began in 1991 when the lure of money made him resort to extortion. He also stabbed a man in his locality in a dispute over water and to cover it up, he committed another crime.

Whilst being lodged in Thane jail, he read a summary of Gandhi's autobiography given by a fellow inmate. After being transferred to Nashik Jail, he ordered a copy of My Experiments With Truth from Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal. He says he did not confess to get a reduced jail term but because "I realised my crime".