The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday directed prison authorities to place on record the prescribed procedure for placing a prisoner in solitary confinement.
A Division Bench of Justices V.K. Jadhav and Sandip Kumar More was hearing a criminal petition filed by Ruheena Shaikh wife of Imran,who was sent to anda cell (solitary confinement) at a Central prison in Aurangabad two years back. She sought a direction from the court to immediately shift her husband on the basis of his deteriorating mental health.
The Bench said, “If certain procedure is prescribed, then we would like to know what the procedure is. This cannot be done arbitrarily. He may be a hardened criminal, a terror to the society, but what is expected is human treatment and not in-human treatment.”
Ms. Shaikh’s application before the court mentions a letter by Imran that states, “Various types of hallucinations occur to me, and by keeping me in this condition, I have even forgotten to communicate with human beings, and all human feelings have been wiped out. Even animals are not kept in this condition. I am not a terrorist or a member of the underworld, nor have I violated any prison rules.”
On January 28, the court had directed the jail authorities to immediately shift Imran out of the cell and also told the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Aurangabad,to visit the prison to record Imran’sstatement, and inspect the prison cell where he was allegedly kept.
The court had also directed the Dean of the Government Medical College and Hospital to form a team of a psychiatrist, a physician, and any other expert members to visit the jail immediately.
The Bench added that the magistrate must take along a photographer and submit pictures of the cell in the report by January 31.
