Mumbai: Indrani Mukerjea, 38 inmates of Byculla jail test positive for Covid-19

Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in Sheena Bora murder case, and 38 other inmates of the Byculla women’s jail tested positive for Covid-19 and were moved to a Covid care centre in Byculla for treatment, senior prison officials said on Wednesday

Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in Sheena Bora murder case, and 38 other inmates of the Byculla women’s jail tested positive for Covid-19 and were moved to a Covid care centre in Byculla for treatment, senior prison officials said on Wednesday.

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This comes in the wake of an outbreak in the state’s 44 prisons, which have seen the number of active Covid jump from 284 to 385 (of which 285 are prisoners) in the week between April 14 and 21. The number of active patients in the state prisons was 42 on March 3.

The jail official quoted above said that a random anti-gen test of the prisoners revealed 39 positive cases on Tuesday night, including Mukerjea, the former chief executive officer of INX Media, who was arrested in August 2015.

Mukerjea was arrested after her driver, arrested under the Arms Act, accused his employer of killing Sheena Bora, Mukerjea’s daughter, three years earlier. Peter Mukerjea was also arrested later in this case. The Central Bureau of Investigation told the court that he was the “silent killer” in this case. According to the prosecution, Indrani had been against the relationship between Sheena, Indrani’s daughter from a previous marriage, and Rahul, Peter’ son from a previous marriage.

Last June saw a major outbreak in Arthur Road Central prison when over 180 prisoners tested positive for Covid-19.

The Byculla district prison has a capacity of 462 prisoners (262 women and 200 men) but houses 306 women and 203 men. Some women prisoners also have children living with them.

The authorities have conducted 59,036 Covid tests so far. “Since April 2020 a total of 3,262 prisoners have tested positive for Covid and nine have succumbed to the infectious disease. Yerwada, Kolahapur and Thane prisons have maximum active Covid positive prisoners,” the jail official said.

In view of the surge in cases of Covid infection among prisoners and jail staffs across Maharashtra prisons, the jail authorities have started setting up 36 temporary prisons (Covid Centres for prisoners) across the state.

“These temporary prisons (mostly educational institutes which are shut due to lockdown) were discontinued last year as the Covid cases had gone down drastically; 14 temporary prions (Covid Centres) have already started while requests have been made to local authorities for 22 others,” Sunil Ramanand, additional director general (prisons), said.

Prison officials also said that the principal reason for spread of the virus in jails is overcrowding as lower courts have not released prisoners on bail across the state.

The prison authority also wants the quarterly (three-monthly) meeting of district-wise Under-Trial Review Committees, which are headed by a Sessions Judge, to be conducted weekly to enable the regular review of de-congestion exercise at the prisons.

Since March 25, 2020, 10,788 prisoners have been released to reduce overcrowding in the prisons in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. However, state prisons continue to remain highly overcrowded. At present, they have 34,943 prisoners against the capacity of 24,000 prisoners.

The prison authority also taking efforts to prevent the spread of virus among its jail staffs. So far 3982 tests have been conducted on staffs following which 759 detected positive for Covid-19. Among these, eight jail staffers died. At present state prisons have 102 active Covid cases among staff members.

The first case of Covid-19 was reported in Byculla jail on May 31, 2020.

Another prison official requesting anonymity said that all the precautionary measures which came into effect during the peak of the pandemic last year have been put in place again. This also includes ensuring no mulaqats (visits of prisoner’s relatives to jail to meet prisoners).

The prison authorities have also been conducting random testing not only of prisoners but also of the staff members working in various prisons throughout the state.

No new inmate is being admitted without a Covid tests since last May.

Taking cognizance of the April 16 report of Hindustan Times the Bombay High Court initiated a suo motu public interest litigation and directed authorities to compulsorily subject prisoners to RT-PCR tests and a vaccination shot 24-hours prior to being admitted to the prison.

The High Court is likely to pass more orders in this regard on Thursday.