Bihar: Few new prisoners amid lockdown 3.0

Ramashankar | TNN | Updated: May 5, 2020, 12:13 IST

Representative image

PATNA: The nationwide lockdown is a great relief for the jail authorities as the number of law violators sent to judicial custody has drastically reduced in the state during the period.
The Beur central jail, the largest among the 59 prisons in Bihar, is hardly receiving five to 10 new prisoners these days. “The number of new prisoners is almost negligible compared to pre-lockdown period,” its superintendent Jawahar Lal Prabhakar said on Monday.
According to the senior officials of prison directorate, on an average 50-60 prisoners were sent to Beur jail by respective courts every day before the lockdown since March 25. However, the number has come down to less than 10.
At present, 3,700 prisoners are lodged in the Beur jail against the sanctioned capacity of 3,500 inmates. Recently, over 600 of its inmates were shifted to other jails in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic.
The situation is the same in Purnia central jail. “Only one or two prisoners are brought here every day. Before the lockdown, 20-25 new prisoners were admitted to this jail every day,” its superintendent Jitendra Kumar said. Purnia central jail has 1291 inmates against the sanctioned capacity of 1148.
The situation in Motihari, Buxar, Shaheed Khudiram Bose central jail at Muzaffarpur and Jubba Sahni central jail at Bhagalpur is n different.
IG (prisons) Mithilesh Mishra said before the lockdown, the jails across the state used to receive 400 to 500 prisoners every day. “Now the number is less than 100,” he said over phone on Monday.
Mishra attributed the drastic fall in new prisoners’ number to the nationwide lockdown as most of the people except for the corona warriors are staying indoors. So the crime rate has declined and also the arrest of the warranted people is not on the priority list of the law enforcing agencies.
A practising lawyer of Muzaffarpur, Bhavesh Upadhyay, said those booked under the Bihar Excise and Prohibition Act 2016 are being released on bail from the courts. Notably, a large number of the jail inmates are facing charges of violating the prohibition law in Bihar.