Santhanam’s offence would have attracted only the minimum sentence had the case come up for trial in court. However, the 27-year-old remand prisoner has been languishing in Central Prison, Puzhal, for three years without any relief.
Santhanam was lodged in prison on October 27, 2014 after being remanded by a magistrate court following his arrest on charges of committing a theft in Nungambakkam. Neither his family members nor any of relatives came forward to execute sureties for his release.
A prison official said Raja was granted bail by the court thanks to counsel provided by the Legal Services authority, but he was unable to execute the sureties as per the direction of the court. He had no option but to remain in prison. His case was then referred to a Prison Adalat. Santhanam gave a petition admitting his guilt to the magistrate. The police filed a charge sheet and the magistrate read out the sentence on the spot. Calculating the period of prison term he had already undergone, the magistrate ordered his release. He is a much relieved man now, thanks to the Mega Lok Adalat programme in prison conducted by the State Legal Services Authority.
Like Santhanam, Mohan*, 62, was freed after languishing in prison for more than three years. He was arrested in connection with forgery in April 2014. None of his family members came forward to execute a surety all these years.
The Mega Lok Adalat programme has benefited over 700 undertrial/ remand prisoner and enabled the release of 570 inmates from nine Central Prisons and five Special Prisons for Women, which has nearly 15,000 inmates.
A. Ramesh, Officer on Special Duty, State Legal Services Authority, told The Hindu , “For the first time, we conducted this Mega Lok Adalat to reduce the pendency of cases and also bring down the number of prison inmates. More than 50% of inmates in jails in Tamil Nadu are undertrials. As many as 1,155 cases were referred to the Lok Adalat proceedings, which were conducted by 32 magistrates. We have disposed of 812 cases and 570 persons were released. It is a record.”
Grievance meetings
A. Murugesan, Jail Superintendent, Central Prison-II, said, “We conduct grievance meeting every week, where the undertrial prisoners ventilated so many grievances. Most of their cases are that none from their family members visited them to bail them out. Such prisoners were in depression. We conduct regular Lok Adalat every week. In this Mega Lok Adalat, over 142 cases were referred and 89 inmates released.”
(*Names have been changed to protect identity of the persons)
