17k inmates lodged in various Maharashtra jails to be released on temporary bail, says home minister Anil Deshmukh

MUMBAI: Anil Deshmukh, Maharashtra home minister on Tuesday said that around 17,000 inmates, lodged in various jails in the state, will be released on temporary parole or bail. The move to decongest the jails comes after 158 prisoners and 26 jail officials in the Arthur Road jail were tested positive for Covid-19 last week. The announcement came after a High-Power Committee (HPC) submitted its recommendations and report. The HPC was appointed by the Supreme Court.
Deshmukh announced that 5,000 under trials in Maharashtra, around 3,000 convicts who are facing jail term upto seven years and 9,000 other convicts facing jail sentence of over seven years will be released under the temporary parole.
Deshmukh had in March this year announced that inmates who are facing minor offences will be released on emergency parole.
Those facing cases under stringent laws like MCOCA, PMLA, MPID, Tada, economic fraud, banking scams, rape etc will be excluded from this temporary relief (bail or parole). There are elderly inmates in the jail like activists Shoma Sen and Sudha Bhardwaj, both arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, Rakesh Diwan and several directors of the PMC bank, Yes Bank’s founder director Rana Kapoor etc are also in the Mumbai jails. However, the senior citizens who are not facing serious charges will be released. The fate of others will be decided by their respective courts.
The High-Power Committee comprising S N Pandey, (DG Prisons), Sanjay Chahande, ACS (Prisons) and Bombay high court’s senior judge justice Amjad Sayyed submitted its recommendation to the state on Tuesday. The HPC stated in its report that most of the state jails are overcrowded. It recommended that every jail should be brought to its actual sanctioned strength (of the prisoners). "Every inmate should get an area of 40 sq ft and he will be able to maintain social distance," a jail department officer cited the recommendation from the HPC report. Many officers said it was a thoughtful decision to recommend bail and decongest the jails. "Around 80% inmates found Covid-19 positive in the Arthur Road jail are asymptomatic. Other 20% positive patients’ inmates have mild symptoms. A team of doctors visits jail every day and they give medicines to these prisoners", said the source. The Arthur Road jail had stopped taking inmates since mid-March and would send all the new comers to Taloja jail.
The source of coronavirus in the Arthur Road jail is yet to be established. However, the jail officials feel that the virus may have entered the jail with some material like eatables or any other thing. "Kasturba hospital, city’s prime center for treating the coronavirus patients is opposite to the jail. We don’t know how the virus came here but we are taking all the precautions," said an officer. While the 26 jail officials have been sent for home quarantined, the 158 prisoners have been kept in three barracks; other inmates have been shifted to dozens other cells. In March, the Arthur Road jail had prepared 20-bed isolation rooms as precautionary measure to keep Covid-19 patients there before they are sent to hospitals. Besides this, a 54-year-old woman, arrested by the Khargar police in 2007 in a cheating case, lodged at the Byculla women’s prison also tested positive for Corona. She has been sent to St George’s hospital where she is admitted for treatment. With the temporary parole and bail, the jail staff is expecting the jail population to go down by half. "It will be easier to maintain the social distance once we get bigger space," said a jail source.
In the last one and a half months, around 600 prisoners, lodged at Arthur Road jail, have been granted bail while 450 from Thane have been released. The capacity of Thane prison is 1100 while 4000 are lodged there. As many as 695 inmates from various jails have been released on emergency parole since May 9.
Sunil Ramanand, additional director general (Prisons) had submitted the proposal on bail to inmates and decongestion in the jail.
Deepak Pandey, special inspector general of police (Prisons) said that the jail authorities would help inmates in completing their document formalities for bail. “If anyone faces problem, we will help them on how to fill up paper or apply for bail before the court,” said Pandey.
Ends.
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