Three dead in state prisons due to Covid, reveals govt affidavit

The prisoners were lodged in Taloja, Yerawada, and Dhule; only those showing symptoms are tested in prisons

The prison department’s best-kept secret so far was revealed in an affidavit to the Bombay High Court, on Wednesday. One prisoner each died in Taloja, Yerawada, and Dhule prisons and all three of them were found to be positive after their death.

One hundred and fifty-eight inmates had earlier tested positive in Arthur Road Jail.

The affidavit was filed by the State Inspector General of Prisons Sunil Ramanand, on behalf of the state government, in response to a PIL by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, which had sought immediate action to save lives of the infected prisoners and prevent others from getting infected. It alleged that a “wall of secrecy” was built and families were getting no information.

The affidavit stated that the two inmates from Taloja and Yerwada tested positive on May 9, after their demise; however, the inmate from Dhule died a little later on May 15. Three others are currently undergoing treatment in the civil hospital.

This assumes significance as minutes of the second meeting on May 12 by the high power committee — constituted for decongestion of prisons —do not reveal the death of the prisoners due to Covid. During the second meeting it was decided that to de-congest Maharashtra’s prisons, nearly 17,000 of the 35,239 inmates would be released. However, only 1,046 inmates have been released since the second meeting of which 803 were undertrials.

The affidavit further reveals that in the 45 prisons, 2001 inmates suffer from serious illnesses, 506 are handicap or suffer from mental illnesses, 8 are pregnant women and 75 are children.

It also said that only those inmates with symptoms were being tested and that there was acute shortage of medical staff in prison. Out of 175 sactioned posts, 65 are vacant.

During the hearing on Wednesday, for the first time, names of all the inmates who had tested positive from Arthur Road were revealed. The court has asked the state to inform their families about their medical condition.

Following arguments by senior counsel Mihir Desai for the petitioners, the court has directed the state to implement its circular dated April 9, that since money orders were not coming in, a bank account for each prison should be set up and inmates’ families should be informed accordingly.

However, the bench of chief justice Dipankar Dutta and justice KK Tated refused to intervene or direct acceleration of bail applications being heard by the court saying that courts cannot blindly grant bail and they would have to apply their minds.

The case will be heard after two weeks.