Gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, currently serving life sentence in the Nagpur Central Jail in connection with a murder case, is pursuing a degree course in arts from an open university in Maharashtra, an official said on Tuesday.

Gawli registered for the Bachelor of Arts (BA) course from the Nashik-based Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in 2019 after he topped an examination conducted on ''Gandhian Thoughts'' by an NGO in 2017, jail superintendent Anup Kumre said.