Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday ordered a probe into allegations that activist Gautam Navlakha was denied spectacles at the Taloja Central Jail.
Mr. Deshmukh told reporters and also tweeted, “Bhima-Koregaon case accused Gautam Navlakha denied spectacles by jail authorities as they refused to accept parcel sent by his family. I have ordered an inquiry in this matter. I believe this situation should have been handled humanly and such incidents need to be avoided in future.”
On December 7, Mr. Navlakha’s partner Sahba Husain alleged that the Taloja Central Jail refused to accept spectacles sent for him after they were stolen. She had said, “Gautam lost his spectacles on November 27 but he couldn’t call earlier and inform me as he had to wait for his turn to call. On November 30, when he was finally able to call, he told me he lost his pair.”
“He is almost 70 and has a very high-powered number about 6.5 and is almost blind without them. So, I immediately got a new one made and sent it by Speed Post on December 3 as the jail authorities do not accept courier. I thought it would have reached by now so I tracked it online only to find out that it reached the jail on December 5 but was returned on December 6,” Ms. Husain had said.
Talking to The Hindu, Taloja jail Superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar said, “We do not accept any couriers and we have not received any parcel for him through post. I have told him if he wants to get another pair made, he can give us the power of his specs and we can make one for him. But he hasn’t. So, what can we do ...?”
He went on to say, “All the accused of Elghar Parishad are useless; whether it is Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy or him; they can’t take care of themselves or their belongings. Is it our responsibility to take care of his specs ...?”
A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik of the Bombay High Court had said, “Humanity is most important. It is high time to conduct a workshop for prison authorities.”
