Inmate count falling in Tihar

18 Nov 2007, 0106 hrs IST,Megha Suri,TNN

NEW DELHI: In what comes as the largest ever fall in population of Tihar Jail, the prison now houses nearly 2,000 less inmates from May this year, when it was rocked by a spate of prisoner deaths.

The jail’s population stood at about 14,000 in May, which has reduced to just about 12,300 now. ‘‘The number of prisoners has been steadily going down. In fact, this has been the biggest fall in population in such a short period in the history of Tihar,’’ said Sunil Kumar Gupta, the prison’s law officer.

The major contributors to decongestion have been the plea bargaining scheme - under which about 600 prisoners have been let off since July - and the recent high court order instructing the release of all prisoners booked under preventive sections.

Since its inception, the plea bargaining scheme has been gaining popularity with prisoners as well as the judiciary. Three special courts have been organised in Tihar so far in which a total 584 cases of undertrials charged under Arms Act, Excise Act, NDPS Act and theft were disposed of. The prisoners were all released.

The last court was held on Saturday in which a total of 106 such cases were heard by two metropolitan magistrates. Plea bargaining was granted in 94 of the cases, where the release of prisoners has been ordered.

The concept of plea bargaining, which is very popular abroad, was introduced in India by the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2005. It came into force on July 5, 2006. Plea bargaining, essentially, is a kind of out of-court agreement where the accused agrees to plead guilty to one or more of the charges or to not contest the charges in exchange of some benefits like a lesser sentence or a lesser charge.

In addition, another 700 prisoners have been released after their cases were disposed of by special courts organised in the court complex located in the Tihar Jail complex.

As a reaction to the high court order, a total of 623 prisoners placed under preventive arrest were freed from the bounds of Tihar soon after. The court had also stated that no person accused under these sections will be sent to judicial custody. So a considerable number of floating population of such prisoners has also got cut.

Delhi prisons have the second highest percentage of undertrial prisoners in the country, and is second only to Bihar. Even neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are way better. ‘‘Statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB-2004) puts the percentage of undertrials at a whopping 80% for Delhi,’’ said a senior prison official.

The percentage of undertrials in UP, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh stand at 79.7, 66.4, 61.6 and 46.6, respectively. Bihar tops the country chart at 82.8%. The national state average, however, stands at 64.9%.

Measures for decongestion were initiated after there was a spate of prisoner deaths in Tihar during the summer this year, all of which were reportedly caused due to intense heat, overcrowding and bad living conditions.

megha.suri@timesgroup.com

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Inmate_count_falling_in_Tihar/articleshow/2549232.cms