Neyaz Elahi
Srinagar (NVI): The Prisons Department of Jammu has revealed that over 90 percent of the prisoners lodged in jails of Jammu and Kashmir are under trial prisoners.
The department also said that less than 2 per cent of all individuals arrested in militancy-related cases have been convicted.
The reply by the Director-General of Police (DGP), Prisons Department, Jammu and Kashmir in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by two students – Tajamul Islam and Aabid Mushtaq, of the University of Kashmir’s Law Department.
According to the data on 7 December, a total of 4,131 prisoners are stated to be held in jails across Jammu and Kashmir as on December 6, which includes 4,005 men and 126 women.
Of these prisoners, 3,735 are currently under trial, of which 747 have been arrested in militancy-related cases, merely 1.8 per cent individuals have been convicted. Overall, a staggering 90.4 per cent of the total prisoners lodged in the prisons are still undergoing trial.
Notably, the total intake capacity of the fourteen jails across Jammu and Kashmir is 3,660, indicating that these jails presently lodge prisoners beyond its holding capacity.
The Central Jail in Jammu’s Kot Balwal holds the highest number of prisoners with 709 prisoners as on 6 December, 2020 in J&K.
While the most number of prisoners —147, accused in militancy-related cases are lodged in a single facility of Srinagar’s Central Jail.
As per the response filed by the office of DGP Prisons, 2,195 undertrial prisoners and 41 convicted prisoners were released on bail or parole since April 2020
However, the office of the DGP said that, “does not have information about all the prisoners of J&K lodged in prisons outside J&K” under preventive detention laws.
The DGP office only had partial information on this aspect, divulging that there were 43 prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir who are currently held outside the Union Territory, in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
-RJV
