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800 Yerawada jail inmates approach Bombay HC with release request; threaten to go on strike if not heard
Their demand comes after a high-powered committee had been constituted in Maharashtra following the Supreme Court (SC) order of decongesting prisons.
At least 800 inmates of the Yerawada Central Jail, who have been convicted for serious offences, have applied to the Bombay High Court for release from the jail due to the fear of getting infected by the Sar-Cov-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 (coronavirus) disease.
The inmates had sent a request to the Yerawada jail authorities seeking consideration of their plea to be released from the overcrowded jail in the last week of March. They have threatened to go on strike if their matter is not listed for hearing.
Their demand comes after a high-powered committee had been constituted in Maharashtra following the Supreme Court (SC) order of decongesting prisons. The SC order decided that undertrial prisoners booked for offences with maximum punishment up to 7 years will be released on interim bail initially for 45 days.
Yerawada jail superintendent UT Pawar said, “Nobody is currently on a hunger strike. We have received their application and the same has been forwarded to the Bombay High Court. We cannot release them as they are criminals convicted of serious offences.”
In view of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak in the state, the Maharashtra prison department had requested judicial authorities to grant complete or provisional bail to undertrials in minor and moderate cases to reduce crowding in jails, Sunil Ramanand, additional director general (ADG) of prisons, had said at a press meet held in the city on March 17. The initiative has been proposed in 60 jails of Maharashtra spread across 45 locations. The 60 prisons, which have a capacity of 24,000, hold 38,000 inmates of which 40-45 per cent inmates are lodged in four central prisons including Yerawada, Arthur road, Thane, and Nashik prisons. The Maharashtra government has released 2,520 from 47 prisons till April 2 since it took a decision to release close to 11,000 undertrials who were facing prison terms of less than seven years.
