Activists seek bail for political prisoners

‘COVID-19 outbreak an occasion to look at overcrowded prisons in country’

A group of activists and intellectuals has sought bail or parole for political prisoners lodged in various jails.

In a letter to the Central and State governments, eminent persons such as writers Arundhati Roy, K. Satchidanandan and Meena Kandasamy, journalist B.R.P. Bhaskar and academics Dilip Menon and Benjamin Zachariah pointed out that the COVID-19 outbreak was also an occasion to look at the overcrowded prisons in the country.

Quoting the India Justice Report 2019, they said that the national average of occupancy in prisons is 114% of their capacity. The outbreak of a pandemic will have disastrous impact in a closed environment such as a prison even in normal conditions. The report also stated that over 67% of prisoners in the country belonged to the category of under-trial prisoners, those in custody awaiting “investigation, inquiry or trial”.

Citing the Supreme Court direction to the State governments to consider granting bail to remand prisoners accused of committing crimes punishable with a maximum of seven years imprisonment, the letter said that the apex court had also asked the State governments to form a high-powered committee to examine the possibility of releasing convicted prisoners and other remand prisoners on parole.

Noting that many of the political prisoners have served more than five years in prison without any clarity on commencement of trial in these cases, it said that in Maharashtra, former Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba, poet Varavara Rao, Shoma Sen, and Sudha Bharadwaj and several others elderly and afflicted from ailments were in jail. In Tamil Nadu, Padma and Veeramony, also suffering from various illnesses and old age, were in jail, the letter stated, adding that a number of political prisoners in remand who had got bail in a number of cases were still imprisoned.

For example, 65-year-old Ibrahim, a chronic diabetic also suffering from cardiac problems, has been in jail in Kerala for more than five years. Danish, another prisoner in the high security prison at Viyyur in Thrissur suffering from acute urinary infections, was still in jail despite gaining bail in all cases, the letter said.

Poor facilities

Many jails in the country do not have proper hospitals, adequate doctors or treatment facilities, and the prisoners have no option other than the overstretched public health system outside in case of an emergency. The Central and State governments should initiate steps to provide bail or parole to all political prisoners on a priority basis along with other prisoners, the letter added.