THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Between April 2023 and March 2024, the state police turned down a whopping 36,000 requests from the prison department to escort inmates to courts and hospitals. Sources told TNIE that the police action jeopardised the human rights of the inmates and the proper functioning of prisons.
As per the prisons department data accessed by TNIE, police escorts were not provided on 24,385 requests for moving inmates to hospitals, and 12,122 requests for producing the prisoners before the courts.
The prison officials said the police failed to deploy its men for escort duty despite being informed in advance, which delayed the court proceedings in several cases, often resulting in the prison officials receiving flak from judges.
“In the case of court production, the police department is alerted two days in advance. In the case of hospital referral, the cops are informed on the eve. But on numerous occasions, the cops are not sent for escort, citing that they have to attend to some other serious tasks, such as law and order issues,” said sources.
The inmates having medical conditions also suffer as many of them, who were referred to hospitals, had to be taken back to prisons on the account of lack of police escort.
“From central prisons, usually there are 25-30 inmates, who are referred to hospitals. If the police escort is not available, then those suffering from serious medical conditions alone are taken to hospital by the prison staff. The rest are sent back to prisons,” the sources added.
The police sources, meanwhile, said the department view the task of escorting prisoners very seriously. However, due to non-availability of personnel, as force has to be re-deployed for some other serious works, they encounter shortage of officers for escorting duty.
The police department is responsible for escorting prisoners, who are even arrested by the excise and forest departments. Cops from the Armed Reserve Camps are often deployed for escorting duty, and the exercise is monitored by the district police chiefs.
According to the official data, the police have escorted prisoners to courts on 61,497 occasions, while on 36,949 cases, they escorted prisoners to hospitals.
Escort sought
for court/ transfer- 61,497
for hospital needs- 36,949
Escort received
for court/transfer- 49,658
hospital- 12,564
Escort not provided
for court/ transfer- 12,122
for hospital- 24,385