JOIN USCoronavirus: 76 prisoners released from Srinagar Central jail amid COVID-19 threat
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and decongest prisons, authorities have released 76 prisoners from Srinagar Central Jail in the past two weeks.
This comes after the Supreme Court directed states and Union Territories to consider decongesting jails in view of coronavirus threat. An official said those released included 31 detenues who were booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) and 36, under trials. One convict was also released on parole, he said.
The 36 undertrials were released on bail granted by the competent courts after they were represented by legal aid counsel. “Different courts of Srinagar, Budgam and Baramulla have granted bail to persons who were lodged in Srinagar Central Jail for different alleged offences,” said advocate Mir Naveed Gul, legal aid counsel for jail inmates of Srinagar Central Jail, engaged by District Legal Services Authority.
He said courts heard the proceedings virtually after the Supreme Court asked the courts to discourage the physical presence of lawyers and litigants.
Politicians in Kashmir, human rights activists and families of detainees lodged in jails outside the Union Territory are also making pleas to bring back prisoners, many of whom have been detained under preventive detention after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked on August 5 last year.
Families say many of the detainees are either of vulnerable age or have underlying health conditions.
States like Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have also released prisoners held for petty crimes on parole or furlough in the wake of the pandemic. Maharashtra released 11,000 such prisoners last month, fearing that COVID-19 would spread among jail inmates