After becoming the target of outrage by Opposition leaders and public from Ramanagaram district, the State government did a volte-face on its earlier decision and shifted 121 undertrials arrested from COVID-19 hit Padarayanapura ward back to Bengaluru on Friday.
The statement of Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar, in-charge of COVID-19 affairs, that the move to lodge accused from the affected areas in a green zone could have been avoided, only exposed the lack of coordination and left the State government embarrassed. There was palpable anger in Ramanagaram against the State government for lodging the undertrials in the district, as it was in the green zone.
In judicial custody
Ramanagaram District Prison, with a capacity of 200, was mostly emptied out on Monday and 121 people arrested for violence in Padarayanapura were lodged there. Five of them tested positive for COVID-19 during a medical test conducted by the district administration. “A decision was taken to shift them to a quarantine centre in Bengaluru to ensure the infection doesn’t spread in the district,” said a senior prisons official. Since these persons are either primary or secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients, they were treated as patients in need of medical care and shifted to the quarantine facility on the orders of the district administration. “Prisoners are shifted to hospitals when in need of medical care. They will remain undertrials in judicial custody, but in a hospital, in this case a quarantine facility,” a senior official said.
All the 116 of them and 17 other prisoners who were in the Ramanagaram prison were shifted to Haj Bhavan, a government quarantine centre in the city, amid heavy police security and medical precautions on Friday. A fleet of KSRTC buses escorted them to Haj Bhavan. Several dozens of police personnel and healthcare personnel were pressed into service. Wearing of personal protection equipment (PPE) kits was made mandatory for the bus drivers and the police officials.
Haj Bhavan was evacuated of others who were under quarantine. “We had 133 people under quarantine in Haj Bhavan, of which 110 finished their quarantine and returned home. Of the remaining 33, two of them tested positive and are being treated in a hospital. Other 31 foreign nationals were shifted to Orchid Resort at Yelahanka on Friday to accommodate persons from Ramanagaram prison,” said Sarfaraz Khan, nodal officer for Haj Bhavan quarantine facility.
Containment zone
Ramanagaram District Prison will be treated as a containment zone and sanitised, sources in the Prisons Department said. “We have identified 30 staffers at the prison and all of them will be put under quarantine,” said Alok Mohan, Director-General Of Police (Prisons). Mr. Mohan, defended the decision to lodge the undertrials in Ramanagaram district prison, as an administrative call to prevent a larger outbreak among prisoners in the State.
The decision was taken by the State-level monitoring committee led by Mr. Mohan formed as per the Supreme Court guidelines on prisons during the pandemic. Since they were arrested in the city, they were supposed to be lodged in Bengaluru Central Prison. “But Bengaluru prison has over 5,000 inmates and lodging these undertrials there would have created a crisis of vast proportions. The Chief Superintendent of Bengaluru Central Prison submitted a memorandum requesting the department not to lodge these undertrials there. He suggested they can be lodged in Ramanagaram prison, also under his supervision. The committee deliberated on the proposal and found it was the best solution on hand and decided on the same,” Mr. Mohan explained. “All care was taken to ensure these undertrials do not come into contact with any other prisoners in the State. The decision was aimed at the larger good,” he said.
Ramanagaram prison has a capacity of 200 inmates, but had 177 inmates. Of them 160 were shifted to Bengaluru Central Prison to make space for those from Padarayanapura. However, 17 senior prisoners, who work in the kitchen and other departments of prison administration, were retained. Now, they have also been shifted to the quarantine centre in Bengaluru along with the 116 undertrials.
