Mumbai: The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday expressed concern over nonavailability of data on the sanctioned capacities of the state prisons vis-àvis actual count of inmates. The issue cropped up while hearing the plea of the ISIS module case accused Sharjeel Shaikh. He sought transfer from the Arthur Road prison to its Taloja counterpart, citing lack of even sleeping space.
Arthur Road Exceeds Inmates Capacity
It is claimed that the Arthur Road facility has capacity to house 999 prisoners, but currently it has 3,700 inmates. The issue gets further aggravated as it's said that terror accused are kept in a special cell. The prison official gave no objection in shifting Sheikh, admitting that the jail is overcrowded and even their special cell is over occupied. The official further said that the special cell already has 46 prisoners. The authorities concerned pleaded that if all the accused arrested in the same case are confined together, there are chances of them hatching another terror conspiracy.
After hearing both sides, Judge AK Lahoti underlined that the Central prison, Mumbai is crammed. Citing lack of data availability on space in other prisons, the court pointed out that the statistics are available only with the higher authority. It directed to forward Sheikh's plea to the authority and that the decision taken should also be informed to the court
