Right to Justice bill: Helplessness, psychological disorders torture Indian prisoners

Click here to EnlargeMoradabad Central Jail in Uttar Pradesh is so chock-a-block with inmates that there isn't enough space for them to sleep. So the 2,200 inmates in the jail, which is supposed to house only 650, sleep in shifts. Each morning when 600-odd prisoners go to court for their trial, the pressure eases somewhat and some inmates get their share of a 6ft x 2ft cell.In Uttar Pradesh's Dasna jail, 13 men serving sentences in different cases got together to form the Gore Khan gang which pulled off a sensational heist at a Tanishq showroom in Chandigarh in January.Begusarai jail in Bihar was so terrifying an experience for 18-year-old Amit Kumar that he still wakes up screaming from nightmares of police boots crashing into his body and faces of hardened criminals staring at him. Kumar was released from on June 13 after spending 72 days there. He was arrested on charges of facilitating a neighbour's abduction. Tortured to make him confess to the crime, he was released only after the "abducted" boy's body was found and another neighbour confessed to the crime.On May 20 this year, DMK MP Kanimozhi complained about the stench from the attached toilet in her cell in Tihar's Jail No. 6 and the authorities bent over backwards to ensure proper water supply to her cell. She should consider herself lucky that she is not in the Tiruchirapalli women's prison in Tamil Nadu where inmates have to get mud to clean their toilets since there isn't any water. Lodged in the Tamil Nadu prison for five years as an undertrial from 2005 to 2010, Murugeswari says that water was so scarce that they had to choose between washing themselves and their clothes.Overflowing with prisoners, with one waterless clogged toilet for every 100 inmates, where bad odour becomes a part of one's life and food is severely rationed-India's jails are less correctional centres and more crime dens where 'bladebaazi' (the use of surgical blades to settle scores) is rampant and and extortion extensive. There are violent fights over even a bucket of water.Prisoners in Tamil Nadu's Puzhal jail interact with visitors through bars.What's worse, 70 per cent of the total 300,000 inmates in India's 1,356 prisons have not been convicted of any offence. They are undertrials, most of them victims of police high-handedness and a grindingly slow judicial system. Of them, nearly 2,000 have spent more than five years behind bars without being convicted of any crime. If one juxtaposes these figures with the overall conviction rate in the country-a measly 6.5 per cent-the injustice of the system stands starkly exposed.An extensive investigation by India Today reporters across the country has exposed a dark sub-culture thriving in jails across the country, not very different from the murky underworld of organised gangs and criminals. In the absence of proper legal aid, the poor and the vulnerable, especially women and youngsters, unwittingly become part of the sordid system.Senior advocate Anu Narula, who works with the women inmates of Tihar jail, says that with long periods of incarceration for undertrials and lack of family support, many women have no choice but to depend on fellow prisoners, convicted of serious crimes like pushing drugs and immoral trafficking. "They unwittingly get sucked into a world of crime,'' Narula says. In an environment where only the toughest survive, new inmates are forced to learn the ropes in no time. "After a year in jail, an undertrial for a petty theft gets as hardened as a convicted criminal,'' says an official in Tihar's Jail No. 7. The poorer you are, the more you suffer.Jails in Bihar are amongst the worst in the country. Underworld dons continue to operate from behind bars, thanks to mobile phones and lax security arrangements. In March 2010, Patna trader Randhir Jaiswal was murdered when he refused to pay heed to the extortion demands of a jailed criminal. In Patna, almost every major crime is linked to the ganglords lodged in Beur jail. In February 2011, undertrial Bablu Mishra, accused of selling spurious liquor, was beaten to death in Bihar's Nawada jail at the behest of the powerful liquor mafia, which feared that Mishra would spill the beans. In another brazen act, an imprisoned criminal in Nawada jail called up the Bihar Director-General of Police (DGP) Neelmani in March last year and threatened to blow up the town if his demands were not met.Delhi's Tihar jail may boast of foolproof security but 2G scam accused Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables director Rajiv Agarwal, managed to smuggle in a BlackBerry phone. It is not known how long he had the phone before it was recovered from his cell during a surprise check. A Page 3 prisoner, accused of a white-collar crime, disclosed how he managed to use his satellite phone undetected in the prison two years ago. According to him, life in prison can be comfortable if one has money and is not in the media glare. "From pizzas to chicken from Maurya's Bukhara, to the best quality booze, everything can be arranged for the right price. It's just that the chicken has to be boneless and the liquor clear like gin, vodka or white rum. One can get most things in jail but for a huge price. I calculated that one needs about Rs 2 crore a year to live comfortably in jail,'' the former Tihar inmate said.Four 'VIP' inmates at Bangalore central jail, serving life for murders, were found routinely going out for a meal as well as to broker land deals. The richer inmates even "hire'' the poorer ones to do menial jobs, including cleaning and sweeping the cell, washing clothes and filling water. A Tihar undertrial Rashid, after he missed a court date in 2008, explained at the next hearing that he could not appear because he was busy working for MP Pappu Yadav. Underworld don Abu Salem had managed to get several facilities in his Arthur Road jail cell in Mumbai. When the then minister of state for home Ramesh Bagwe visited the jail after gangster Mustafa Dossa attacked Salem in July last year, he was shocked to find a "little paradise''. Salem's cell had marble flooring, an attached bathroom, bed, utensils and posters of Bollywood actresses. He had managed to keep the jail staff happy. Dossa's cell had supplies of fruit to last 10-12 days. Salim Sheikh, an aide of underworld don Chhota Shakeel, gained 5 kg after a two-year jail stint.However, money can be a double-edged sword. It buys little luxuries but it also attracts extortion gangs. The biggest extortion ring or 'bladebaaz' gang in Tihar jail run by Romesh Sharma-believed to be a Dawood Ibrahim associate-was exposed after a high-profile undertrial made a formal complaint against the demands and threats by gang members in March 2007. Now out on bail, the inmate made the complaint after he was attacked twice with surgical blades in the high-security jail van, which ferries prisoners for their court dates. The gang had demanded Rs 3 crore as protection money. The inmate was saved by the jail staff in the van but some others were not as lucky. Notorious pimp Kamaljeet, charged under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), had his face slashed in Patiala House court in July 2006, and is believed to have coughed up Rs 10 lakh. According to jail authorities, Sanjeev Nanda, convicted in the BMW hit-and-run case, faced extortion demands and had complained about it. Even the Jessica Lall case convicted Manu Sharma complained of extortion demands.Jail authorities, however, refuse to take responsibility for the behaviour of inmates. Jharkhand inspector general of prisons (retired) Sabhapati Kushwaha says that barring a few exceptions, jails have become orphans in most states."While large-scale recruitment takes place to staff police ranks, there is no such exercise undertaken for jails. The staff are a minority in most jails. So they largely let the inmates do what they want, to buy peace with them,'' he said. The bribes make things smoother. Kushwaha concedes that the Government's indifference to the condition of jails defeats the basic purpose of crime control.In the women's Jail No. 6 of Tihar, where Kanimozhi was lodged till she was shifted to a special cell in the assistant superintendent's office, nearly 90 per cent of inmates are undertrials. Many are often acquitted, but only after they have suffered. Madhu Diwanchand, 46, was recently acquitted of charges of murdering her husband after she had spent six years in jail, separated from her two children. In Jail No. 7, which houses young adults between 18 and 21, more than 95 per cent of the inmates are undertrials. There is the poignant case of 20-year-old Dinesh, who was granted bail in July 2010, two years after his arrest. However, he continues to be in prison since there is nobody to provide him surety. ``My family is in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. I sent them a letter when bail was given to me but I have got no response. I don't even know if they have got the letter,'' he said, his eyes brimming over.Helplessness, frustration and psychological disorders are common. With limited jail staff, the overcrowded barracks become difficult to manage and enforcing discipline is next to impossible. A doctor in Gopalganj jail in Bihar, Budhdeo Singh, was beaten to death in the prison premises on May 29 by the inmates, after he refused to declare seven life convicts "sick''-a tag that would have stopped their transfer to a high-security jail. The other jail staff on duty just stood and watched. Dr Singh's wife Reena, who has two physically challenged sons and a widowed daughter to look after, has refused the Rs 10 lakh compensation given by the Government. She wants the government to include the jail officials in the list of the accused.Senior advocate and Vice Chairman of the Law Commission of India, K.T.S. Tulsi, says that the trend to deny bail as a form of punishment is repugnant to basic bail jurisprudence. "Only those undertrials should be remanded in custody who are likely to flee or are likely to commit similar offences. An accused is presumed innocent till finally pronounced guilty,'' he says. In India, since the conviction rate is poor, pre-bail detention is used as punishment, he says. Overcrowding of jails had to be factored in. "Each judge should have a ready reckoner on prison capacity and prisoners lodged while deciding bail applications. If there is no room in prison, bail should be mandatory. Potentially less dangerous accused should be bailed to accommodate hardcore criminals. It should be an offence to remand an accused to a prison in which there is no space. It should be unlawful to pack prisons like sardines,'' Tulsi said.In 1982-83, the All India Jail Reforms Committee under Justice A.N. Mulla came out with suggestions for prison reform. Yet to be implemented, the committee had recommended that undertrial prisoners should be lodged in separate facilities, away from convicted prisoners. It had also called for quick trials, simplification of bail procedures and suggested that bail should be granted to the accused as a matter of right unless the prosecution could prove that releasing the accused on bail endangered the security of society.Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily says that the government is planning to introduce a Right to Justice Bill, whose highlight will be a time-bound justice delivery system. It remains to be seen if the ills plaguing Indian prisons get addressed.- With inputs from Amitabh Srivastava, Mihir Srivastava, Shafi Rahman, Lakshmi Subramanian, Amarnath K. Menon, Olina Banerji, Kruttika Kallury and Sanjay DikshitPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Jun 24, 2011 21:59 IST--- ENDS ---

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Right to Justice bill: Helplessness, psychological disorders torture Indian prisoners

Undertrials locked up for years. Criminal gangs calling the shots. Jails, meant to be correctional facilities, are turning into nightmares without end.

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