Jail authority refutes prisoner harassment charge
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 20 2024: Superintendent of Manipur Central Jail SK Bhadrika has refuted the charges levelled on the jail officials of harassing inmates from Myanmar at Foreigner Detention Centre.

Speaking to the media at his office near Manipur Central Jail complex today, the SP said that The Wire published a news story on June 27 under the heading 'Myanmar Refugees Being Ill-Treated in Indian Jails Despite Serving Terms, Paying Fines' .

Saying that the news story accused the jail authorities of making the in- mates from Myanmar pay a fine apart from not providing adequate drinking water and telephone facility to them, the SP added that the allegations, however, are all unfounded.

Jail authority refutes prisoner harassment charge

Further stating that Mani-pur Central Jail has its own water reservoir and a water tanker and the inmates are only given the purified water, SK Bhadrika added that the inmates are also given water to bathe and wash their clothes and blankets.

They were given water even when there was scarcity of water, the SP said.

Refuting the claim that inmates from Myanmar were not given the facility to contact/dial their families, the SP added that the jail gives the inmates even the facility for audio-visual conversation.

Saying that jail authorities have no say when it comes to releasing inmates as the direction has to come from a Court, the SP maintained that foreigners who have completed the jail terms or have to be released as per a ruling of a Court has to be deported under Foreigners Act, 1946 .

Deportation, however, takes time as the Central Government also has to be involved in the process.

He also clarified that there is no question of the jail authorities imposing fines on the inmates from the neighbouring country at the time of their release.

The inmates may have spent money on hiring counsels but the jail authorities didn't take any money from them, he said.

Continuing that some inmates staged a protest at the jail complex recently, the SP added that what they (the inmates) demanded was to release them and it has nothing to do with the facilities given to them.

Further stating that many of the inmates withdrew from the protest after he himself apprised them of the security concern, the SP added that it was inmates from Myanmar only who continued the protest.

The inmates from Myanmar were demanding their release either at Moreh or Churachandpur or Mizoram, the SP said and added that they however don't have any power over the matter.

To a query, he responded that there are 99 inmates at the detention centre at Sajiwa currently of which 97 are from Myanmar and one each from Egypt and Bangladesh.