Parole, bail of 30% prisoners in Chandigarh’s Model Jail extended

Interim bail and parole of prisoners released from March 27 to April 25 will be extended by five weeks and for others freed from April 26 to May 9 by three weeks

Undertrials and convicts at Chandigarh’s Burail Model Jail granted special bail or parole between March 27 to May 9 due to the Covid-19 outbreak have been given an extension by the state legal services authority (SLSA), it has been learnt.

The decision was taken at an SLSA meeting on Sunday between Justice Jaswant Singh of the Punjab and Haryana high court with inspector general of prisons Ombir Singh and home secretary Arun Kumar Gupta.

Interim bail and parole of prisoners released from March 27 to April 25 will be extended by five weeks (35 days) and for others freed from April 26 to May 9 by three weeks (21 days). However, those released after May 10 will be given no extension.

The prisoners’ return will be staggered to prevent undue crowding of the prison with only 20 undertrials/convicts taken back at one time. They will then be sent to isolation wards.

The decision to release undertrials was taken to decongest the prison during the Covid-19 lockdown.

“The prisoners released on special bail for a period of 60 days will be due to return shortly. In the prevailing Covid-19 situation, readmitting prisoners has enormous risk and will defeat the whole purpose of releasing them” observed the committee.

Special lok adalat

The superintendent of police at Burail has also been asked to inform the SLSA about undertrails committing petty offences within one week, which will then hold a lok adalat to dispose of cases, reportedly exercising leniency.

Since March 27, in three special lok adalats, 147 cases were taken up, in which the release of 104 prisoners was ordered but 72 were actually let off.

Besides this, at least 42 prisoners were released after furnishing personal bonds.

Convicted prisoners

Up till May 15, jail authorities processed 332 parole applications, of which 229 prisoners were released and only 174 granted special parole. About 55 persons were not released for want of sureties and applications of 56 were rejected. The committee decided that convicts who had already availed one parole/furlough peacefully and surrendered on time at the jail gate could be granted a onetime six-week special parole, on the same set of sureties.