Testing must before judicial remand of accused: Govt

Bhubaneswar: Wary of the Covid-19 infection in jails, the state government has revised its prison management plan and issued a fresh advisory on procedures need to be followed after the arrest of an accused person. The state home department has issued an 8-point standard operating procedure (SOP) to be followed by the four major arresting authorities of the state government — police, vigilance, excise and forest.
According to the SOP, the arresting authorities will compulsorily subject newly arrested accused to Covid-19 test — either RT-PCR or rapid antigen test (RAT) depending on the availability of testing facilities in the areas before producing the latter before court and their subsequent remand in judicial custody.
“We have informed the superintendents and jailers of all prisons about the government’s new SOP. A number of steps have been taken to prevent the virus infection in jails. At least 16,789 inmates were released on bail as part of the decongestion of prisons in recent past. We have introduced e-mulakat to allow visitors to interact with the prisoners through videoconferencing,” DGP (prisons) Santosh Upadhyay said.
“An accused person should be produced in court within 24 hours of his/her arrest. Since the report of the RT-PCR test comes after 24 to 48 hours, we have advised the arresting authorities to go for RAT, whose finding comes within a few hours,” a home department official said.
In the SOP, medical officers have been asked to write whether an accused person is symptomatic or asymptomatic. Anybody found positive should immediately be shifted to a Covid care centre (CCC) or hospital. They will be lodged in jail after his/her recovery.
Those who test negative should be brought to the jail and kept in isolation wards. Chief district medical officers (CDMOs) will depute medical staff for random testing of prisoners in designated places (to be decided by the district administrations). DCPs and SPs will provide police escort during transport of Covid-infected prisoners to the hospitals.
“The home department said police guards should be deployed in Covid hospitals for the safe custody of infected under-trial prisoners (UTPs). The police escorts should wear personal protective equipment. After their discharge, the police guards shall be quarantined for 14 days (either at home or in a Covid care centre). The guards will undergo a Covid-19 test on the 14th day,” the SOP said.
Around 510 inmates in different prisons have tested positive for coronavirus, while four of them died of the disease. Official statistics said the capacity of 90-odd jails in the state is 19,016. At present, the population in the jails is 16,931.
The Orissa high court has directed the police to refrain from making arrests of accused in petty cases or offences where the maximum sentence is up to seven years. “All prisoners have been provided with masks, soaps and sanitisers,” a jail official said.