About 21 prisoners from Jammu Kashmir, presently lodged in various jails of Uttar Pradesh, have been shifted to the high-security Agra jail, This is being done on the orders of the Union Home Ministry (MHA).
The prisoners being shifted were arrested in the wake of the revocation of special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.
According to Senior Superintendent of Agra central jail, V.K. Singh, “While eight prisoners were already lodged in Agra Central Jail, 17 more have been shifted from Naini, Bareilly and Ambedkar Nagar jails. Four more are scheduled to be transferred from Varanasi Central Jail. All of them will be kept in a high-security cell, away from the other prisoners.”
The entire cell is soundproof and under constant CCTV surveillance. Sources said that the jail staff on duty at the special cell have been strictly directed not to speak to any prisoner. Only senior officials would communicate with them if needed.
They would be taken out of the lock-up one by one at a fixed time every day and allowed to walk for a few minutes.
Visitors and staffers would be thoroughly checked at the main gate. The entire premises is being monitored by police and provincial armed constabulary (PAC) round-the-clock.
In 2019, over 200 prisoners booked under the PSA were transferred to the Agra Central Jail. A year later, most of them were ‘temporarily’ released on the directives of the MHA.
The high-security cell at Agra central jail was constructed 23 years ago and has the capacity to lodge 30 prisoners.
Meanwhile, The Jammu Kashmir Prisons Department has decided to resume the meeting facility across the UT after it was discontinued last year due to the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19.
The department had also advised the family members to keep the COVID-19 negative certificates with them.
According to an order, a copy of which lies with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Prisons Department, J&K has decided to resume “Mulaqat facility” in jails, which was stopped as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in Jails.