Over 630 inmates have been released from various jails in Rajasthan in compliance with the Supreme Court’s recent direction to decongest prisons for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The District Legal Services Authorities filed applications for bail and parole on behalf of prisoners in the courts. The Prisons Department has also shifted over 2,200 inmates from overcrowded jails and sub-jails to less crowded prisons. No inmate has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or is showing symptoms of the infection in any of the jails in the State.
State Legal Services Authority member-secretary Ashok Kumar Jain told The Hindu here on Monday that the bail and parole had been granted to first-time offenders and those booked for crimes punishable with imprisonment of up to seven years.
The Undertrial Review Committees, headed by District & Sessions Judges, have also released inmates booked for petty offences. Mr. Jain said the committees were holding weekly meetings to identify those who could be released during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A high-power committee headed by State Legal Services Authority’s executive chairman Justice Sangeet Lodha has issued directions for creation of isolation wards in the jail, quarantine of new prisoners and inclusion of nutritious food.
