E-Paper
160 high-risk inmates to be shifted from Mandoli jail to Tihar
The move comes after 15 prisoners and one jail staffer in the Rohini prison complex tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
A high-powered committee, constituted to decongest prisons in the national capital, has resolved that all 160 high-risk prisoners lodged in jail number 15 in Mandoli prison, be shifted to the Tihar jail complex, to allow new entrants to the former to be lodged in separate cells in isolation. The move comes after 15 prisoners and one jail staffer in the Rohini prison complex tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
In a meeting on May 18, Sandeep Goel, director general (prisons), told the committee precautions are being taken and all contacts of the infected persons are being traced.
Justice Hima Kohli, chairman of the committee, had asked the DG (prisons) whether individual cells, which could be converted into isolation cells, were available in any prison, to allow new entrants at least 14 days of isolation, so as to keep others at bay from the potential threat of contracting Covid-19.
Goel said jail 15 at Mandoli prison, which has an overall capacity of 280 prisoners, has 248 individual cells (with attached toilets). He also told the committee that Mandoli currently has 178 inmates, of whom 139 are under trial, 38 are convicts, and one is a detenue.
“After transferring the existing inmates of Jail No 15, the same shall be available for keeping the new entrants in isolation cells/rooms. This shall take care of all the new male entrants who are above 21 years of age. It is made clear that fresh male inmates who are between 18 to 21 years of age and fresh women inmates shall continue to be kept in ‘ separate isolation wards at jail no 5 and 6 respectively at Tihar, in terms of the earlier resolution.
“It is resolved that these new inmates shall be permitted to intermingle with other inmates only after keeping them in Isolation Wards for 14 days and before lodging them, they should be thermally screened and medically examined and in case of any medical necessity, their RT-PCR test be conducted,” the minutes of the meeting read.
Goel also told the committee that steps are being taken to maintain social distancing and regular medical checkup of jail staff and inmates is being done through jail doctors who have been advised to inform jail superintendents if they find symptoms of Covid-19 in any inmate.
