Submit details of FIRs registered, arrests made during pandemic: Bombay High Court to Maharashtra govt

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to submit details of all FIRs registered and arrests made during the Covid19 pandemic and inform the court about the present crime rate in the stateThe direction came after the states counsel Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the HC that while orders of the state highpowered committee were being followed on granting emergency parole to eligible inmates in a bid to decongest prisons during the pandemic jails across the state were still crowdedKumbhakoni said the crowd in prisons was not being reduced due to new arrestsHe said following the HCs orders passed over the last two months on decongesting prisons and following Covid19 safety protocols in prisons 2168 inmates from seven prisons in the state had been released on interim bail as per the highpowered committees guidelinesAlso Read Maharashtra 26 convicts refuse emergency parole cite various reasonsAfter the HCs orders vaccination drives for prison inmates and staff had increased he said adding that more prisoners were being tested for Covid19 and the number of active cases among inmates has now come down to 114He further told the HC that 26 prisoners who were eligible for emergency parole were yet to apply for the temporary releaseLast month Kumbhakoni given the instance of these 26 prisoners to say that even though eligible for parole they had chosen to stay in the prison for reasons like fear of being unable to sustain themselves outside lack of a place to stay or secure meals for themselvesHowever on Wednesday a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said the state must address the issue of overcrowding in prisonsThe court said prison population swells because police make arrests So they have to be sensitised about the guidelines made in Arnesh Kumar judgement the court saidIn case some of them are first time offenders forced into a life of crime because of loss of job due to the pandemicjobs and employment are an issue now So they may steal foodbasically first time offenders Putting them in jail is not going to solve the problem the HC saidThe Arnesh Kumar judgement mentioned by the bench refers to a 2014 verdict of the Supreme Court where it said to ensure police officers do not arrest accused unnecessarily and magistrates do not authorise the detention casually and mechanically specific directions must be followedThese directions included instructions to police officers not to automatically arrest when a case is registered under offences where the maximum punishment is seven years or less but to be satisfied first with the need to arrest as elaborated in the Criminal Procedure Code CrPCThe HC bench led by Chief Justice Datta said the state prison authorities must also address the issue of vacant sanctioned post for doctors and medical staff in prisonsThe prison authorities must also devise a system to segregate inmates above 45 years of age or who had co morbidities from others and to vaccinate them he saidWe are concerned about the lack of doctors and medical staff in prisons As an adhoc arrangement can some doctors visit at least once a day for two hours Doctors can be sent on rotation the HC saidIt also took note of the submission made by senior counsel Mihir Desai the amicus curiae in the case that not enough RTPCR tests were being conducted in prisonsDesai cited the instance where an inmate Jesuit priest Stan Swamy at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai was admitted to a private hospital where he tested positive for the coronavirusBefore being admitted to the hospital the inmate underwent a rapid antigen test in the prison and he had tested negative for the viral infectionAt this the HC said there had to be some mechanism where prisoners were tested segregated and those with co morbidities or those above 45 years of age needed to be vaccinated on priorityThe HC was hearing a Public Interest Litigation PIL taken up suo motu on its own on the spread of Covid19 among prison inmates and staffProfessor Vijay Raghavan of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences who is assisting the HC in the PIL told the court that prison inmates could not be taken for admission to civil hospitals in neighbouring Thane Kalyan and Navi MumbaiThus all of them were required to be brought to the staterun J J Hospital in Mumbai he saidThe HC asked the state government to respond to the above concernsIt will continue hearing the PIL on June 10This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever