BEHIND BARS
Gautam datt
When judge Madhusudan Sharma arrived in Jodhpur jail last Wednesday to deliver the verdict in the rape case in which Asaram was the main accused, he had to wait for 15 minutes because the godman was performing his morning puja and had not arrived. Stories of preferential treatment for VIP prisoners in jail are often part of folklore, spread by hangers-on to feed the myth-making factory.

Bollywood mega star Salman Khan and Asaram were lodged in Jodhpur jail, not a pleasant place to be in for either B-town’s badshah of superhits or the dancing godman with friends and followers in high places. It is a tough world made easier by a VIP culture that has been carried into the grim precincts — jail officials treat Khan and Asaram differently from other criminals even though they claim to follow the jail manual on this.

Prisons across the country, some with a reputation for being dangerous, keep within their walls influential inmates offenders and there have been instances where they were seen to be enjoying certain priviliges, sometimes with the help of the jail authorities and at times through judicial largesse.

Preferential treatment

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was lodged in Pune’s Yerawada Jail for a five-year term, was out on paroles and furloughs several times to be with his family. According to a report, he got 156 days (around five months) of leave out of 1,825 days he was to serve in the prison. There was a furore over this as many felt that other convicts don’t get lenient treatment. On one occasion, he was out for 30 days.

Even when Salman Khan was lodged in Jodhpur jail briefly before he got bail after being convicted of killing antelopes, reports suggested that the jail authorities went out of the way to make the superstar comfortable despite claims that he was treated like ordinary prisoner. Reports said that a cooler was placed in the barrack where he was lodged and the family of the jail officials met the star and so were other visitors including the people close to him. The jail officials, their families happily clicked selfies with the Bollywood icon.

Preferential treatment to VIPs is only one aspect of jails being manipulated to buy the comfort. There are abundant cases where criminals lodged in prisons continue to run their crime syndicates without any hindrance.

Very recently, Punjab police found that four criminals lodged in Sangrur jail were running an extortion racket. It is an open secret that inmates smuggle in mobile phones despite strict surveillance. There have been many reports about don Babloo Srivastava running his kidnapping and extortion racket from behind bars.

One of the most blatant violations was seen last year when Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim spent time in an air-conditioned room in Rohtak jail. The Haryana government flew him from Panchkula to Rohtak in a helicopter, his daughter adopted Honeypreet accompanied him and the government officials carried his personal belongings.

Hospitality behind bars

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's aide Sasikala was lodged in Parappana Agrahara central jail in Bangalore following a corruption case and famously enjoyed hospitality like having a special kitchen, beds and a television. In the same jail, Abdul Karim Telgi, convicted in fake stamp scam, apparently enjoyed foot massage from fellow prisoners before he died last year.

The court allowed Sahara India Pariwar chief Subrata Roy to run his office from Delhi's Tihar jail to raise Rs 10,000 crore for securing his release on bail. There are unconfirmed reports that Roy had paid bribes of over Rs one crore to jail personnel to avail special privileges for a year. These perks included an air-conditioned room, mobile phone, Wi-Fi, and video conferencing amenities. A senior official, however, had said that the facilities offered to Roy were a result of a Supreme Court order because he had to sell some of his properties to raise Rs 10,000 crore for his bail.

Similar reports have come in from Jharkhand, where influential politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, lodged in Birsa Munda Central jail, is known to have enjoyed preferential treatment as he allegedly got a television set and cooks.

The special treatment syndrome is not restricted to a particular jail, the high and the mighty get these facilities wherever they are lodged. Punjab politician Bibi Jagir Kaur, who was lodged in Kapurthala jail before charges of kidnapping and killing her own daughter were dropped, apparently had a big screen TV in her cell and access to phone.

Son of influential politician, Vikas Yadav, lodged in Tihar jail, has been in hospital on a number occasions while serving a murder sentence and so is Manu Sharma, convicted of killing Jessica Lal.

Even white collar crime accused B. Ramalinga Raju, former chairperson of Satyam computers, who committed a fraud of around Rs 7,000 crore was given a special status by the court in 2009 and he got individual cell, a cot, preferential food and separate toilet. The financial status of the criminal alters the treatment in prisons and despite the occasional hue and cry in the media, the system seems to be always responsive towards the requests of the influential.

Tihar Jail, Delhi
Crime is synonymous with Tihar Jail. The sprawling prison complex in the national capital is the biggest in South Asia. From corrupt politicians to dreaded terrorists; spies to scamsters; cheats to street goons, the thick barbed-wired walls assimilating a mini-township is brimming with lawbreakers.

The jail was meant for around 6,000 prisoners but has over 15,000 inmates, comprising under trial prisoners and convicts. An occasional peak into life inside Tihar is on offer when prisoners come to court.

Dreaded terrorist Mohammad Ahmed Siddibappa, known as Yasin Bhatkal, the founder of Indian Mujahideen that carried out a series of bomb blasts is lodged in Tihar Jail. Bhatkal was arrested from Nepal in August 2013.

Life is tough inside the jail. On March 17 last year, prisoners were injured when a fight broke out between two groups in Jail No. 3. A few had to hospitalised with cuts on their bodies. Two years ago, prisoners came to blows in a jail van on their way to Saket court. These are the ones that come to light, but there are other stand-offs between prisoners.

Sometimes, strong-arm measures are adopted by the jail authorities. On the odd occasion, these come to light. Earlier this week, Delhi High Court warned it would order an FIR to be lodged against prison officials for allegedly torturing prisoners. A high court bench referred to the physical assault on 21 prisoners during a hearing. The jail officials are said to have subjected the victims to extreme physical torture.

Beyond the skirmishes are the eerie deaths. Ram Singh, alleged killer of Nirbhaya, was found dead in his 15x12 cell one fine morning in March 2013. Hours before he was to appear in court, he was found hanging from the ceiling of his cell with a bed-roll around his neck. He used an upturned bucket to reach up. His suicide remains a mystery to date as his three cellmates had not seen him take such a step. There were several unanswered questions as the authorities took two hours to report the crime to the police.

Ram Singh's suicide came a month after Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged in complete secrecy in Tihar. His body was not handed over to the family and the terrorist was buried inside the jail premises.

In the 90s, biscuit baron Rajan Pillai died in Tihar jail. His widow Nina PIllai alleged conspiracy in the custodial death. But the Leila Seth Commission probing the death did not find any evidence of wrongdoing. The Delhi High court, however, later found that jail authorities were at fault and awarded a token compensation to his family. Nina Pillai then filed a petition on jail reforms and handling of ailing prisoners.

Till 2015, the nine jails in Tihar Jail had a sanctioned capacity of 5,200 prisoners but had more than 14,000 prisoners. Ninety five per cent of these were men.

According to Tihar jail website, the prison's population increased by 2.40 per cent in 2015, compared to the year before when the occupancy of prisons vis-a-vis sanctioned capacity was 222 per cent. In 2015, the occupancy of prisons compared to sanctioned capacity increased to 227 per cent.

There are only 239 prisoners in Tihar having an annual income of Rs 4 lakh and above. There are only nine women in the high income category. In terms of profession, a majority of Tihar jail prisoners are agricultural labourers followed by those in private jobs. Same is the case with women prisoners.

Around 35 per cent of convicts and under trial prisoners are repeat offenders. A further breakdown of the figures show that 11.07 per cent males were repeat offenders compared to only 45 per cent women. Sixty five per cent of fresh arrivals are first-time offenders who are kept separately and not allowed to mingle with the habitual criminals.

Over 20 per cent of under trial prisoners at Tihar Jail face murder charges and 16 per cent are lodged in rape cases. More than 30 per cent of convicts are serving a sentence in murder cases. Till 2015, nine prisoners were on death row and more than 1 300 were serving life imprisonment. Curiously, according to Tihar jail records, only one case of human right violation is pending against 28 complaints received.

Central Jail, Jodhpur
After being convicted for killing an antelope during the shooting of his film around 20 years ago, super star Salman Khan  was taken to Jodhpur central jail. He was prisoner number 106 and lodged next to rape accused (who was convicted days later) Asaram Bapu. Salman Khan, lodged in Barrack No. 2, skipped meals during his brief stay before he was granted bail, but did a work out. Before him, Asaram Bapu has been living in the jail for long awaiting the verdict in the rape and murder case which came on Wednesday -- he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

There are other inmates. One of them is Shambhulal Regar, who is lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail for allegedly murdering West Bengal labourer Mohammad Afrazul in an alleged love jihad case. He is being kept in a separate barrack. His notoriety has made him famous with Hindutva groups that have made him famous, a newfound status that he appears to be milking. In February this year, he sent out a video loaded with communal invectives in which he claimed his life was in danger from a man who was posing as a Brahmin but was in truth a Muslim. Jail authorities, who ordered an inquiry into how he secured access to a mobile phone said the man Regar had referred to was a Brahmin.

Former Rajasthan minister Mahipal Singh Maderna and politician Makhan Singh Bishnoi, accused in the murder of auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) Bhanwari Devi had been lodged in Jodhpur Jail initially but were later shifted out. However, 12 accused in the same rape and murder case are lodged in the jail, and among them are Parasram and Bhanwari Devi's husband Amarchand.

Central Jail Kot Bhalwal, Jammu
In 2013, Sanaullah Haq, a convicted Pakistani terrorist died after being thrashed by another inmate in Jammu's Kothbhalwal jail. The attack was seen as revenge for the death of an Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail. The Jammu central jail is one of the most heavily guarded premises in the state battling insurgency. Earlier this year, 40 dreaded terrorists were shifted outside the Valley to Jammu. The names included terror heads like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s Ashfaq Ahmad Bhat, Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Amir Nahi Wagey and Pakistani terrroist Abdul Razk Baloch.

The hardened prisoners were moved out of the valley after the escape of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorist Naveed Jhatt from Srinagar jail who fled from the hospital during medical check-up killing two policemen accompanying him. In the late 1990s, even Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar was lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail from where he was released along with two other dreaded terrorists by the then NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a swap to secure the release of hijacked IC 814 hostages from Kandahar.

Alipore Central Jail, Kolkata
Ritwik Mukherjee
A nine-feet-by-five-feet prison cell radically changed his life. It was within this windowless cage, fronted by a large iron barred-door, that he took up yoga with the idea of acquiring spiritual force and energy and divine guidance for his future life. His inner spiritual life and realisation within that prison cell went on increasing in magnitude and universality and eventually assuming a larger place it took him up entirely and his work became a part and result of it. That was Aurobindo Ghosh (better known as Sri Aurobindo) and the prison cell referred to was Kolkata’s Alipore Central Jail (now known as Alipore Correctional Home). Aurobindo Ghosh was arrested on May 2, 1908, under the charge of 'Conspiracy'. He spent one full year in Alipore jail while the British Government, in a protracted court-trial in the Alipore Bomb case, tried to implicate him in various revolutionary activities. He was also kept in solitary confinement for certain periods.

“The year of 1908, Friday, first of May..... Nor did I know at the time that this day would mark the end of a chapter in my life, that there stretched before me a year's imprisonment..... Though I have described it as 'imprisonment' for a year, it was, in effect, like a year's seclusion as in an Ashram or hermitage...... Finally the Compassionate, Sarva-Mangalamaya Shri Hari (All-Good Lord) ... brought me to a Yogashram and Himself stayed as Guru and companion in that tiny Sadhan-kutir (seat of spiritual discipline). This yogashram happened to be the British prison. ... The British Government's wrath had but one significant outcome: I found God,” writes Aurobindo in Tales of Prison Life.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy and naxalite leader Charu Mazumdar — all spent a part of their lives in this historic jail. This was the jail where political prisoners were kept under British rule and in the early years of Independent India.

Since then, Alipore Central Jail has traversed a long distance. Now the jail has convicts and under trial prisoners. But, there have not been stories like Aurobindo Ghosh’s glorious transformation. However, jailbreaks have become common. As recently as January 14, this year, a convict and two under trials — all Bangladeshi nationals — escaped from Alipore Central Jail, cutting through iron rods of their prison door using smuggled hacksaw blades. The trio scaled a 20ft wall using nine rags and bedsheets provided to them the previous week by the prison authorities to beat the chill. Their escape exposed the lack of security at the central prison, involving three inmates.

Jailbreak is not peculiar to Alipore Correctional Home, Presidency Jail or Presidency Correctional Home, for long known as one of the best jails in India and the other historic prison in Kolkata, also comes up with instances of jailbreaks. Some time back, two Bangladeshi prisoners escaped from the Presidency jail by climbing over the prison boundary wall early morning. They were identified as Mohammad Sabuj and Mohammad Ali Mollah. Both prisoners were under-trials lodged in ward numbers 21 and 22 of the jail. They had been arrested on charges of illegally staying in India a few months before the incident.

In December last year, ISIS suspect Mohammed Masihuddin, who had allegedly planned to target foreign nationals at Mother House, the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Kolkata, tried to kill a prison official by the name of Gokul Chandra Dey, inside the jail. The alleged terrorist attacked the jail official with a stone and slashed his throat with a sharp-edged rod as other inmates watched. Dye was rescued by jail security personnel. Masihuddin was charged with murder.

There are often instances of suicide within the jail. As recently as on April 15, an inmate of Presidency Correctional Home allegedly committed suicide inside its premises. According to the police, Sabid Ali Laskar committed and his body was recovered from an abandoned canteen. If these incidents put focus on the poor security measures in the jail, the instances of seizing more than 400 mobile phones from Presidency, Alipore and Dum Dum central jails also point fingers towards that.

Mind you that Aftab Ansari and his associate Jamiluddin Nasir, the mastermind behind the attack on the American Center on January 22, 2002, had served terms in the condemned cell of Presidency Jail before their death sentence. Aftab Ansari was also the mastermind of the abduction of Khadim’s owner Partha Pratim Roy Burman in July 2001 and also had links with dreaded Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Omar Sheikh, who was released after the Kandahar hijack and later charged with the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

It is not that the government is not aware of the security lapses in these jails. Nor is it sitting idle on such instances. As starter, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has decided to relocate three key correctional homes from Kolkata to adjoining districts due to “security reasons”. If what Ujjal Biswas, the state’s minister of correctional administration, said is anything to go by, the state government has already given the go ahead to shift the Alipore Central Correctional Home to Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district, and is planning to relocate Presidency Correctional Home and Alipore Women’s Correctional Home as well.

"The three correctional homes are being relocated from the city as several high-rise buildings have come up around them, hampering security and surveillance,” said Biswas, adding that there are serious security issues which need to be addressed immediately. "The main purpose of the correctional homes is to bring the inmates back to the mainstream in a secured environment. Due to rapid construction around these three facilities, that very purpose is being defeated,” he added.

The minister referred to Mamata Banerjee government’s efforts to allow inmates of these jails to interact with their family members through video chat. The initiative christened as ‘e-mulaquat’ aims at giving mental strength to the prisoners, said Biswas.

The minister said, “There are so many inmates who hail from far-flung areas. Then there are those who belong to other states and we have foreign prisoners also. It becomes very difficult for relatives of such prisoners to come to meet them. In many cases, the parents of the inmates are too old to travel or they have health and monetary problems. The facility will, therefore, be beneficial for those families. That’s not all. Lawyers or legal aid committee members can also communicate with the prisoners through this facility.”

Former Calcutta high court judge, Justice CS Karnan, who served a six month jail term at Kolkata’s Presidency Jail on charges of contempt of court, also pledged to help prisoners in Presidency jail in legal matters for free.

Central Prison, Vellore & Special Prison for Women
Sangeeta G
The Central Prison in Vellore, about 140 km from Chennai, has a history of more than 150 years. The leading lights of the freedom struggle had been incarcerated here during British rule, as were several top politicians after Independence. The jail has been in the news in the past two decades for housing those convicted for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The Presidency Jail for women in Vellore was the first prison constructed in Tamil Nadu in 1830. It has now been renamed the Special Prison for Women, Vellore and is located on the premises of the Central Prison in Vellore which came up in 1867 and was the most prominent jail for the whole of South India during British rule. The 153-acre prison has a capacity to accommodate 2,130 prisoners.

In 1920, during the freedom struggle, the Vellore prison had housed statesmen like C Rajagopalachari, who later became the First Indian Governor General of the country. His diary on day-to-day life inside Vellore jail is a gripping account of prison life. Former Indian presidents VV Giri and R Venkataraman and former Tamil Nadu chief minister K Kamaraj were lodged in the jail by the British before Independence. Another chief minister of the state, CN Annadurai, had been incarcerated in during the anti-Hindi agitations in 1960s.

After a gap of a few decades, Vellore jail once again attracted public attention when the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were brought in after a Special court convicted them. After staying at the Chengalpattu prison between 1991 and 1993 and at Poonamalle High Security prison between 1993 and 1998 during the trial, the 26 convicts were put up at Vellore and Salem prisons once the trials ended. Of them, 19 were later acquitted by the higher court, and three were sentenced for life and four were sentenced to death, said P Pugazhenthi, senior advocate of Madras High Court, who had appeared for the accused.

The four convicts sentenced to death included Nalini, a survivor of the suicide assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. She along with her husband Murugan had hosted suicide bomber Dhanu and her accomplice Shubha in Chennai while the assassination plan was hatched. Her husband Murugan was a part of the LTTE in Sri Lanka and was allegedly sent to India to carry out the assassination. Santhan, allegedly a member of the intelligence wing of the LTTE, was close to the prime accused Sivarasan. AG Perarivalan was allegedly involved in getting equipment for the bomb used to kill Rajiv Gandhi.

Robert Pious, a Sri Lankan Tamil and one of the key planners for the assassination, was sentenced for life. Jayakumar, who had arranged for a house in Tamil Nadu for the other accused to stay, and Ravichandran, who had helped the team in various tasks, were also sentenced for life.

All the six male convicts were put at the central prison for men at Vellore and Nalini was lodged in the women’s cell. According to Walter Scott, a Chennai-based senior journalist who has been closely following the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the government perhaps had chosen Vellore prison for security reasons. In those days when LTTE was still active in Sri Lanka, the government did not want the political parties and the Eelam supporters to interact with the prisoners by keeping them in Chennai. “Further, the Chennai jail was a subordinate jail then. Vellore was a larger one and separate cells for men and women were available to house all the convicts,” he said.

In 2000, Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life by the Governor. However, the mercy petitions of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were rejected. In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of these three also to life imprisonment. That was also the year when the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa decided to release all the seven convicts as they had completed more than 20 years in jail. The decision was challenged by the Centre and the Supreme Court ruled that the state government needs the concurrence of the central government as the case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“The Jayalalithaa government had introduced a scheme in 1994 to release prisoners after serving 20 years of jail under Article 161 of the Constitution, which does not need the concurrence of the Centre. More than 2,000 prisoners have been released under this scheme. But the state government chose to release Rajiv Gandhi convicts under CrPC Sections 432 and 433, which requires the Centre’s concurrence. This showed that the government, in fact, did not want the prisoners to be released,” said M Radhakrishnan, advocate of Nalini.

Recently, Nalini appealed to the state government for release under Article 161 and later filed a writ petition seeking a direction from the Madras High Court to the government. The case is being heard by the court.

"Nalini is the longest serving woman prisoner in India and she has been in solitary confinement in one of the blocks of the women cell. Being an A-class prisoner she is not allowed to interact with other prisoners. But she enjoys some privileges like freedom to cook own food and pursue studies. She has completed two post graduation courses during the jail term. Perarivalan too continued studies inside jail. However, these prisoners were not given parole as easily as in the case of other prisoners,” said Radhakrishnan.

In these years, Nalini was given parole only for 24 hours to perform the last rites of her father a few years back. She has repeatedly sought permission to make arrangements for the marriage of her daughter who was born in prison and brought up by Murugan’s parents in Sri Lanka.

The efforts taken by his mother Arputhammal helped Perarivalan get parole for two months when his father was seriously ill last year. Ravichandran got two weeks' parole last month after being in prison since 1991. Others have not received parole all these years.

Last year, Robert Pious wrote to the state DG Prisons seeking mercy killing claiming that he had lost purpose in life after being in prison for 27 years.

Within the prison, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts are kept separately. “They are kept in separate cells and don’t mingle with us. Their living conditions are better than ours though they do not get parole as often as we do,” said a former prisoner of Vellore jail on condition of anonymity.

“We live in crowded cells — 50 people in one room with three toilets. Lying on bare concrete benches and consuming food low in nutrition for years have taken a toll on our health. Though there is a physician available for common ailments, we do not have access to specialist healthcare. When dangerous or ganja-addicted prisoners are around, the situation inside the jail becomes tense and we are put on alert. Fights would break out among prisoners and we have to keep ourselves away from such incidents,” he added.  For offences inside the jail, prisoners are kept in solitary confinement in tiny 6x6 feet cells without proper clothing for a week or 10 days.

In recent times, Ravichandran, Jayakumar and Robert Pious were moved to jails in Madurai and Chennai while the other convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case are still put up in the Vellore jail.
Bangalore Central Jail
Mini Tejaswi
A sprawling 40 acre property, amidst farm lands, surrounded by monstrous perimeter walls, barbed-wire fencing and stunning silence. This is Bangalore Central Jail or Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, an hour's drive outside the city, situated on the Bangalore-Hosur Road which leads to Chennai. It is currently home to more than 4,400 inmates against a capacity of 2,200. Some 1,000 of them are convicted prisoners while the rest are under trial.

Many weighty and mighty people had spent time within its walls. Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa was one of them -- that was November 2011. Also, jailed were 14 of his former cabinet colleagues, like Gali Janardana Reddy and former state minister SN Krishnaiah Setty. This jail also had the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, her close aid VK Sasikala, nephew VN Sudhakaran and sister-in-law Ilavarasi among its inmates.

Abdul Karim Telgi, a vegetable vendor-turned counterfeiter, who was convicted in the stamp paper scam, had been an inmate of Bangalore Central Jail — he died in October last year of multiple organ failure. Abdul Nasser Madani, allegedly involved in 2008 Bangalore serial blasts, is currently under judicial custody and the trial is still on. He is also suspected to have organised terrorist activities and believed to have maintained links with terrorist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. He had also been accused of being behind the 1998 Coimbatore bombings but was acquitted.

The latest, newgen entry into Parappana Agrahara is none other than Congress MLA NA Haris’ elder son Mohammed Nalapad Haris for brutally assaulting the 25-year old son of an industrialist in an upscale restaurant in the city recently.

In a stark contrast to Sasikala, Jayalalithaa behaved like any ordinary inmate of the Bangalore Central Jail where she served a prison sentence after being convicted in the disproportionate assets case by a special court in 2014. She never sought any special benefits or treatment and had insisted that jail authorities treat her in accordance with the Karnataka Jail Manual.

“Madam (Jayalalithaa) is not getting any kind of special treatment. She is being treated like any other prisoner in our jail. She has not even sought a TV inside her cell. She has been polite with the jail staff,” said the then DIG (Prisons) PM Jaisimha.

No Karnataka jail story will be complete without invoking the spunky IPS officer D Roopa Moudgil, who stirred a hornet’s nest a year ago by going public about the VIP treatment given to Sasikala at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. Exposing the malpractices in the jail she raised the issue prison reforms and sensitisation of officials. She boldly took on her senior officer and the then Karnataka DGP (Prisons) HN Sathyanarayana Rao.

“The cases of discrimination inside the jails were a reflection of the discrimination that exists in society. The people who are considered as VIPs outside are often given VIP treatment inside the prison as well. They avail of special facilities. For the poor, the jail is like hell. So the discrimination that exists in society, the same is reflected in the microcosm of prisons,” she had said.

Her revelations forced chief minister Siddaramaiah to order a high-level probe into the issue.

The Parappana Agrahara Central Prison seems to exist in a twilight zone where prison laws and guidelines are mostly irrelevant. Insiders say a ‘khap’ panchayat, comprising a few select prisoners and prison staff actually runs the prison.

“We are told that such a panchayat kind of arrangement always existed within the high and fortified walls. The composition of this panchayat changed as officials changed or member convicts became non-supportive of the job,” said a top police officer who wanted to remain anonymous.

The panchayat system at prisons was actually introduced as a form of ‘proxy democratic set-up’. However, the objectives got diluted resulting in several illegal activities including special treatment to celebrity prisoners like Sasikala and Telgi. Panchayat members run the show at the central prison. They control who gets VIP treatment, manage the ration and the massive kitchen operations.

Some prisons in our country are run by mafia within the walls. Select inmates, prison officials, some police officials and even politicians are part of it. But, its operations are extremely secretive. I closely interacted with two dreaded criminals after they were reformed. Many things they told me were a huge revelation for me. A lot of things I did not know even though I was one of the most senior police officials in the state.  Our system is full of loopholes and lapses. A thorough clean-up is possible if we have scores of officials like PG Arlankar," said a retired top cop in Bangalore.

Arlankar was a tough City Police Commissioner who ordered the elimination of several criminals in the city including Kothawal Ramachandra, his associate-turned rival Jayaraj, Oil Kumar and associates.

During the 70s, 80s and even 90s, many Karnataka politicians appeared in public meetings accompanied by toughs. Apparently, in a power tussle between two chief ministerial candidates in Karnataka, a notorious don who sided with one of the candidates threatened the other by placing a knife on is neck. Ironically, someone who worked as a sidekick of another dreaded rowdy in the city became the prison minister of the state (not long ago). Muthappa Rai, one of Karnataka’s most wanted criminals, was active until a decade ago. Now he is mostly a reformed man. Karnataka’s most dreaded criminal, sandalwood smuggler and tusker poacher Veerappan remained elusive until he was mysteriously killed in an encounter in a village near Dharmapuri, in Tamil Nadu, in 2004.

The world of crime has a cycle of its own, where the old gives place to new. "Every five years a new crop comes up and we should have solid policing to handle it," says A Ramesh, a leading criminal lawyer.