‘191-yr-old Karaikal prison building dilapidated, poses threat to inmates’

The Karaikal District and Sessions Judge’s report on the jail visit, filed before the division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad who had suo motu taken cognisance of the condition prevailing at the prisons in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, said the building constructed in 1828 might collapse.

The report said that the convicts were accommodated in two rooms which have tiled flooring. But on verification, it was found that the convicts were forced to sleep on the floor as they were not provided with mats. In one the rooms, the floor tiles are broken.

Further, the overhead tank situated in the area where the under-trial prisoners were lodged was in a highly dilapidated condition, it said, warning that it was extremely unsafe to keep the inmates in and around the water tank.

The sessions judge also recorded that the three rooms where under-trial prisoners were accommodated was damaged, with peeling cement plaster, and the inmates expressed their grievance that they were facing mosquito bites both day and night, as the rooms have not been fixed with mosquito mesh.

Another grievance of the inmates was that they were provided rice on all three times – for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They requested for dosa or idly for breakfast, as provided in the Central prison at Puducherry.

The report also said that the convicts did not have an option for any sort of physical work like handicrafts, which would ease their mental stress.

Moreover, there was no separate prison for women in Karaikal. Because of this, women convicts and under-trial prisoners being kept in the women’s prison situated at Puducherry, which is 150 Kms from Karaikal.

Based on the report, the bench directed the Puducherry public prosecutor to get instructions from the government.