Eighty-five prisoners at the Coimbatore Central Prison were released on Saturday after the District Legal Services Authority conducted an adalat in the prison. According to sources, in the presence of Principal District Judge N. Seshasayee, First Additional District Judge R. Sakthivel, Chief Judicial Magistrate C. Nallathmabi and judicial magistrates, the Authority heard cases of prisoners booked for petty offences. The sources said that after arresting the petty offenders, the police would not have even filed charge sheets and their delay would have led to the prisoners serving more time in the prison than what they would have if convicted.
After hearing their cases and calculating the time they had spent in the prison, the magistrates presiding over the adalat would take a call and order their release. Such a procedure was followed on Saturday, the sources said and added that 52 prisoners from Coimbatore, 27 from Tirupur, four from Erode and two from Udhagamandalam were released. The sources added that Deputy Inspector General Prisons P. Govindarajan and Superintendent of Prisons Anandan were present on the occasion.