Special living quarters for VIP Arthur Road Jail inmates soon

Mumbai: Prisoners of some eminence – mainly political and economic offenders – will soon be granted upgraded living quarters at the Arthur Road Jail

Mumbai: Prisoners of some eminence – mainly political and economic offenders – will soon be granted upgraded living quarters at the Arthur Road Jail. Nine new cells are being constructed by the Public Works Department (PWD) in a ground-plus-two storey structure. It is likely to be handed over to the prison authorities by the end of October.

The new cells – 100 square feet each – will add a capacity of around 27 inmates to the over-crowded Central Jail. (HT PHOTO)

The cells, not very different from compact service apartments, will have adequate ventilation, western style toilets, attached bathrooms and fans. Inmates housed here will also be given mattresses, bedsheets and served food in melamine crockery, said prison authorities.

“The new cells – 100 square feet each – will add a capacity of around 27 inmates to the over-crowded Central Jail, one of the oldest, built in 1925, as a stone and concrete structure,” said a senior prison officer.

Unlike the dormitories of other barracks, where 80 to 100 inmates are forced to stay together, each new cell will house three inmates. Prison authorities, however, are tight-lipped about which undertrials will be accorded the privilege.

“It is the jailor’s discretion to choose inmates to be lodged in the cells,” said the officer, adding that inmates like policemen, senior citizens and those accused in economic offences or CBI and NIA cases are required to be isolated from criminals apprehended in other cases.

“Our number one priority is safety of the accused while he is lodged in the jail,” said another officer. “Such barracks which are completely separate from other parts of the jail will help us keep a watch on them,” the second officer added.

The officer illustrated the incident of one of the accused in the Amravati-based pharmacist Umesh Kolhe murder case being attacked by some fellow inmates in July. “Accused in such sensitive cases are required to be isolated,” said the official. “Barrack Number 12, a high-profile barrack and isolated from the rest of the jail, is occupied mostly by those accused in Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI cases. We have Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, NCP leader Nawab Malik and another senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh here. It has also housed Pune-based realtor Avinash Bhosale and Deshmukh’s PA Sanjeev Palande.”

It had earlier housed 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab, Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea, Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam accused Vipul Ambani and the Wadhawan brothers, Kapil and Dheeraj, of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited.

It is presently filled to capacity. “While the maximum capacity of the jail is 804, we already have more than 3,000 inmates and therefore new cells are always welcome,” said another jail official.

In 2018, Vijay Mallya’s lawyers had argued that given the state of Indian prisons, lodging him in one would “violate his human rights”. Mallya is wanted in India on charges of fraud and money-laundering to the tune of ₹9,000 crore, and continues to remain in England.

The jail’s condition was raked up again in 2020, when fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s lawyers opposed India’s request for extradition before a UK court, citing overcrowding and lack of basic facilities that gained import during the pandemic. Modi, wanted in the ₹13,850-crore PNB scam, claimed that the jails in India were “inhumane” and “old-fashioned sweatboxes”.