HYDERABAD: Prof G Haragopal, convenor of Forum Against Repression, filed a PIL in the Telangana High Court seeking directions to the State government and police to protect convicts and undertrials from Covid-19.
There are three Central jails, seven district prisons, 33 sub-jails, a women’s jail, a borstal school, an open jail and four special prisons, among other detention facilities and prisons, in Telangana.
All of these are packed with convicts and undertrials beyond their permitted strength, Haragopal noted. This made the inmates highly prone to contracting the virus, he stated.
He accused the authorities of doing nothing for their protection despite the Supreme Court laying down elaborate steps for constituting a committee, ‘Under Trial Review Committee’.
The apex court also asked States to follow the interim guidance of the WHO’s inter-agency standing committee, ‘Covid-19: Focus on persons deprived of their liberty’.
Principal secretaries to Home and Prisons, director general of police, inspector general of prisons and the chairman of State legal services committee were named as the respondents in PIL. The HC is likely to hear the matter soon.