With the cases of COVID-19 showing a downward trend in Punjab, the high-powered committee constituted by the Supreme Court for dealing with COVID in prisons has decided not to extend the parole of prisoners any further in the State.
The Committee headed by Justice Ajay Tewari of Punjab and Haryana High Court with D.K. Tiwari, Principal Secretary (Jails), and P.K. Sinha, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), has recommended that all the prisoners surrender to the prisons which have been designated specifically for quarantining the returnees before testing and transferring them to their respective prisons.
“The process shall be done in a phased manner starting February 17, for which ‘first out-first in’ mechanism shall be followed i.e. the prisoners who have availed the longest period of parole would report back to the prisons first,” said an official statement.
The statement added parole of all the prisoners released on parole in year 2020 and presently out on parole shall be extended till the date on which they have been asked to surrender.
