Kashish Jain
Last year 6,740 prisoners were released from the Tihar Jail on parole in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic, out of these, 3,468 have gone ‘missing’. Jail authorities have now approached the Delhi Police to help trace them.
Convicts and under-trial prisoners were suffering from illnesses such as HIV, Cancer kidney dysfunction requiring dialysis, Hepatitis B or C, asthma, and TB. They were released to decongest the prison as the number of Covid Cases peaked.
Tihar jail is one of the largest in South Asia with a cumulative capacity of holding 10,026 inmates.
Jail sources have said,
“They were initially released for eight weeks, which was later extended from time to time. They were finally supposed to surrender between February 7 and March 6. But out of 1,184, 112 are missing. When jail officials approached their family members, they were told that they were not present at their homes.”
Of the under-trial prisoners, only around 2,200 of the 5,556 released on interim bail have returned. Jail Authorities have said,“The process to surrender started on March 6 this year and they were asked to surrender by the end of March.”
After the Supreme Court’s suggestions, all stated had made high-powered committees to lay down the criteria to determine which convicted and under-trial prisoners would be released for decongesting the jails.
This was followed by the States releasing inmates for 30 to 60 days.
For Delhi, the committee was headed by Delhi High Court judge Justice Hima Kohli. It also included then Delhi government Principal Secretary (Home)/Additional Chief Secretary Satya Gopal and Tihar Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel.
DG Goel has said, “We have shared a list of UTPs (under-trial prisoners) and convicts who have not surrendered with the Delhi Police. Some UTPs are still surrendering and some might have obtained regular bails from courts, which is being ascertained.”
The Tihar Jail authorities have provided data that shows that the prison had 67 active cases among jail inmates and 11 among jail staff, including a jail superintendent and two prison doctors.
The Officials have stated,
“Currently there are around 20,000 prisoners in Tihar. To date, 174 inmates and 300 staff have tested positive. Last week, the Tihar jail administration decided to cancel meetings between prisoners and their family members till further orders, following the surge of Covid-19 cases in Delhi.”