BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Saturday directed Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (DIG) KC Divyashree to set right the functioning of the prisons department after taking note of an accused left to languish in jail for four years despite getting bail as he could not arrange for surety.
The court, which summoned Divyashree, directed her to identify those undertrials, who have not been produced before the jurisdictional magistrate for long, and submit a report.
The court sought to know why the prison authorities kept the accused in jail even during his trial. “Not once has he been brought outside in the past four years. It is highly incorrect. What is happening inside the jail? All these things should be set right. Set the prison in order,” the court told the DIG.
When the court queried about the adjournment of the case by the trial court 20 times as the accused was not produced in the last four years, the DIG said the prison authorities have increased the number of para-legal volunteers to provide free legal aid to poor undertrials. The process is on to identify those who have not been produced before the trial court for the past six months.
The court directed Saidulu Adavath, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield Division), who was also summoned, to initiate a departmental inquiry against a head constable of the HAL police station and submit an action taken report by March 6.
The court issued this directive after taking note of the fact that the jurisdictional magistrate had issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the accused due to his non-production. Surprisingly, the head constable of the HAL police station had sent a report to the magistrate stating that the NBW could not be executed as the accused could not be traced, though he has been languishing in jail for four years.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order on two petitions filed by Imran aka Kulla, 28, of Islampur in Bengaluru. The petitioner challenged the two criminal cases registered against him in HAL police station and sought his release on the grounds that his detention was illegal, as he was not produced before the magistrate at regular intervals in accordance with law.
The court observed that the report of HAL police, who were entrusted with the execution of NBW, was shocking. There is dereliction and callousness on the part of HAL police or the particular policeman, who had been directed to execute the NBW, the court said.
Meanwhile, the court said that it would consider the request of the petitioner for his release on the already granted bail, waiving the bail conditions, as he is poor and could not furnish the surety as per the order of the trial court.