Indrani Mukherjea, 38 other inmates of Byculla jail test Covid positive

It is yet not clear if any jail staffer or prison officials have also got infected. The 39 positive cases are being moved to nearby government hospitals such as JJ hospital, St George hospital, and GT Hospital, a jail source said

Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in Sheena Bora murder case, and 38 other female inmates of the Byculla women’s jail have tested positive for Covid-19, senior prison officials said.

Indrani Mukherjea. (HT archive)

It is yet not clear if any jail staffer or prison officials have also got infected.

The 39 positive cases are being moved to nearby government hospitals such as JJ hospital, St George hospital, and GT Hospital, a jail source said.

The Bycuall prison has the capacity of 462 prisoners (262 women and 200 men), but presently, it houses 306 female and 203 male inmates.

Mukherjea, former CEO of INX Media, was arrested in August 2015 and her bail has been cancelled thrice since.

Across the 44 prisons in the state, so far 59,036 Covid tests have been conducted. “Since April 2020, a total of 3,262 prisoners have tested positive for Covid and nine have succumbed to it. Yerwada, Kolahapur and Thane prisons have the maximum active Covid cases,” the jail official cited above said.

Since March 25, a total of 10,788 prisoners have been released in order to eliminate overcrowding, yet state prisons are packed full. Presently, they have 34,943 prisoners against their capacity of around 26,000.

The first Covid case was reported in Byculla jail on May 31, followed by Satara prisons, and a major outbreak in Arthur Road Central Prison in June when over 180 prisoners tested positive.

A prison official said that prisons cannot stay unaffected if a second wave of the infection has swept the state. “However, we managed to keep a check on mortality rate among prisoners,” said a prison official.

Since the outbreak in jails in May 2020, the prison department has not been allowing any fresh inmate without Covid tests.

Another prison official said that all the precautionary measures have been put in place again. This also includes ensuring no family visits are allowed at the prisons.