Bhubaneswar: Expressing grave concern over the alarming Covid situation in the country, the Supreme Court Saturday instructed the high-powered committees established in various states to consider releasing prisoners in order to decongest the prisons. The danger of Covid-19 looms large over the prisons in Odisha too.
Speaking to Orissa POST, the state Prisons DG Santosh Kumar Upadhyay said that the high-powered committee, under the chairmanship of Justice Sanju Panda, will go through the judgement and act as per the apex court’s directions.
The state prisons directorate had also recently asked the authorities including police, vigilance, excise, forest and CBI to ensure the RT-PCR test of the accused persons before producing them in courts for their judicial remand.
However, several jail staffers along with the inmates have recently been found positive for Covid-19 while one under-trial prisoner (UTP) has reportedly succumbed to the virus.
According to jail sources, as many as 16 inmates in the sub-jail of Rairangpur were tested positive for Covid-19 followed by nine from Gajapati in April. Meanwhile, around 22 prisoners lodged in Salipur sub-jail in Cuttack have been found Covid-19 positive a couple of days ago.
Recently, the Prisons directorate, in a letter addressed to the Registrar General of Orissa High Court, informed about the lodging of 1,163 UTPs in jails in connection with offences with maximum punishment upto seven years. The directorate has requested the Registrar to ‘issue suitable instructions to the courts and police authority for decongestion of jails in view of resurgence of Covid-19 pandemic.’
The decision to shift 85 inmates from Jharpada jail to Banapur sub-jail is yet to be implemented as the proceedings at Khurda sessions court are suspended following detection of Covid among the staff and lawyers.
PNN
