Imran Shaikh was moved out of Anda Cell after the Aurangabad Bench of the HC intervened Every fortnight when Ruheena visited the Aurangabad Central Jail to meet husband Imran Shaikh, she says, she noticed he was a little more unlike his usual self. He met her with a bewildered expression, confused between day and night. He became forgetful, lost weight and complained of depression.
On Friday, Shaikh, a murder convict, was moved out of the jail’s Anda Cell, housing generally prisoners kept in solitary confinement, after the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court expressed “shock” over Ruheena’s complaint that he had been kept there for two years and four months, causing severe deterioration in his mental health.
On Monday, the Bench asked the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit within four weeks with details on the prisoners kept in Anda Cells, while pulling up the authorities, saying they cannot “arbitrarily lift the prisoners and keep them in Anda Cell without strictly following the prescribed procedure”.
Ruheena says Shaikh filed several appeals to the jail authorities seeking to be shifted. Finally, on January 24, Ruheena filed a petition in the High Court, that he be moved out of solitary confinement.
Called Anda Cells because of their oblong shape, providing a better view to prison guards for monitoring, these cells are present only in central prisons and meant to house inmates considered high risk or facing serious charges such as terrorism. There is usually no source of light, and the toilet and bath are present within the cell. The inmates are not allowed contact with other prisoners, or to visit the library or canteen, or access the main courtyard. While not officially for solitary confinement, these are the most isolated cells in a prison.
Shaikh has been in jail since he was arrested in 2012 and convicted on the charge of murdering a local corporator. He is also booked in four other murder cases. In August 2018, he was given life imprisonment in two cases of murder and shifted to Pune jail.
In 2019, ahead of trial in three other murder cases registered against Shaikh, his lawyer moved an application seeking that Shaikh be shifted to the Aurangabad Central Jail as he needed to appear in court in the district. In October 2019, Shaikh was shifted and, as per the family, had been kept in solitary confinement since.
“They cited security reasons and kept him in Anda Cell,” says Rizwan. Ruheena says before he was put in solitary confinement, Shaikh had no health issues. But in the last two years, he developed diabetes, high blood pressure and cataract.
“Whenever we met, he would be irritated. He lost his temper easily. In the 20-minute mulaqat allotted to us, he would repeatedly say he was going into depression and would not be able to survive for long if kept in Anda Cell… He was not able to understand whether it was day or night. Every time we met he would say he had forgotten his own voice, he often could not say whether he had eaten his meal or not,” Ruheena told The Indian Express.
Describing their meeting on January 1, Ruheena says she wanted to wish Sheikh for the New Year. “He was not able to understand what I was telling him… I was scared I might lose my husband to such inhuman behaviour.” Soon after, she moved the High Court.
In December, activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, had moved a petition in court seeking that he be allowed out of the Anda Cell for at least an hour every day so that he could get some son and fresh air. He was moved to the Anda Cell at Taloja Jail in October 2021.
After terrorist Ajmal Kasab was executed, his old cell was used to lodge Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, also an accused in the 2008 terror attack case. Ansari had pleaded before court that he should not be kept in solitary confinement in the cell that had previously housed Kasab, claiming that he was hallucinating about the Lashkar terrorist.
Himayat Baig, who was arrested in September 2010 in the German bakery blast matter, had also filed several applications to the jail authorities and the court requesting them to move him out of an Anda Cell. His brother Tariq said he is still lodged in solitary confinement despite being acquitted of terror charges.
Section 73 of the IPC states that a person cannot be kept in solitary confinement for more than three months in all, and the period should never exceed 14 days at a time. Section 46 (10) of the Prisoners Act also says such confinement should not exceed 14 days.
Thanking their legal aid lawyer Rupesh Jaiswal, Shaikh’s family said they had struggled to find one to fight their case. “Everyone would tell us he was now in jail’s custody and our only option was to appeal to the prison authorities. So he (Shaikh) kept writing applications to jail authorities, but did not get any response,” says Ruheena.
She submitted one such application submitted by Shaikh, dated September 15, 2021 in which he said, “even animals are not kept like this”. “Various types of hallucinations happen to me… I have even forgotten to communicate with human beings and every human feeling has been wiped out… I am not a terrorist or affiliated to any underworld. Nor have I broken any prison rules,” Shaikh wrote.
Asked about Shaikh’s case, Additional Director General (Prisons) Atulchandra Kulkarni said: “The matter is in High Court and we will be submitting our submission through our public prosecutor.”
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