KOCHI: Coming down heavily on jail authorities over mishandling of inmates, the Kerala High Court has asked how those in charge of the Central Prison, Kannur could house prisoners in different blocks based on their political allegiance.
There is no place for factionalism among detainees. Like prison officers, prisoners also shall not indulge in any political activity inside the four walls of prisons, said the court.
The division bench made the observation while confirming the sentence of six-month rigorous imprisonment awarded by the Thalassery Sessions court to three BJP activists - Phalgunan, Dinesan, and Ashokan - in a case relating to the murder of their co-prisoner and CPM worker Raveendran in 2004. The court acquitted four other BJP activists. The court, however, upheld the life term awarded to the first accused Pavithran and the seventh accused Anilkumar who died during the pendency of the appeal against the conviction.
The court observed: “We fail to understand how the authorities of the Central Prison, Kannur could house prisoners in different blocks based on their political allegiance. That, in fact, leads to incidents like the instant one.”
However, a retired head of prisons in Kerala told TNIE that political prisoners are lodged in separate blocks in jail so as to avoid clashes between them. This was the system in place for the last several years,” the retired officer said.
“This was implemented following frequent murders reported in central prisons in the state. Following murder incidents in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur in 1994, the prison officials reached a mutual understanding to lodge political prisoners separately to avoid such untoward incidents,” the officer explained.
‘Jails are crowded and short-staffed ’
Considering the safety of the prisoners this is a comparatively better way, the officer said. “The shortage of jail staff is also a reason to lodge political prisoners separately. The jails in the state are short-staffed and crowded. The planned staff strength was 1:6 (one official for six prisoners). But this is not possible at present considering the large numbers of prisoners in the state,” the officer said.