Post Bhopal jailbreak: SIMI undertrials in single cells, new locks everyday

# All SIMI operatives will be kept in separate cells.

# Every operative and every cell will be checked intensively when the jail is opened in the morning and shut in the evening. The cell, the corridor and the sector will remain locked all the time.

Watch What Else Is making News

# When an operative is required to be taken out of the cell, he should be taken only to the courtyard and it should be locked. If an operative has to be taken to the jail hospital etc, a separate force will accompany him.

# All locks should be changed every day, and locking and unlocking should be done only in the presence of the official in-charge.

# Senior officials like jail superintendent and deputy jail superintendent will inspect sensitive and high-security zones everyday; searches to be conducted in their presence.

# All high-security zones should have lighting, communication equipment, CCTVs should work. The superintendent will review it every day. Night vision devices and torches should be available in the control room.

On the intervening night of October 30-31, the eight runaway undertrials had reportedly used duplicate keys on locks and made a rope of bed sheets to scale the wall. They allegedly slit the throat of head warder Ramashankar Yadav with sharpened utensils and tied up another warder.

The new security measures have led to allegations about torture, with SIMI operatives having reportedly complained to visiting relatives.

Advocate Parvez Alam, who represents some of the SIMI members, told The Indian Express that the prisoners have not been allowed to bathe and been kept in one cell, given only one quilt and food only once a day. The advocate alleged that family members talk briefly to the undertrials separated by a glass wall, through the intercom, with scores of security officials crowding them.

Jail authorities had allegedly not allowed Alam to meet his clients despite a court order last month. Quoting the jail manual, the court had said that a lawyer could meet his clients in jail. A contempt plea filed by the advocate is expected to come up for hearing this week.

In another move, which goes beyond the Bhopal jail, authorities have barred relatives starting this week from carrying food and other items of personal use for all undertrials lodged in 121 jails in Madhya Pradesh. The government justified the order citing instances of some relatives passing blades and marijuana to undertrials.

“Most essential items are provided to the undertrials by the jail administration. There were instances of relatives passing on banned items like marijuana by hiding it in the sole of their footwear and metal detectors could not detect it,” said director general (jail) Sanjay Chaudhary.

Now all undertrials will be allowed a maximum four pairs of clothes and one pair of footwear.

All SIMI undertrials in Madhya Pradesh are in Bhopal Central Jail, shifted for administrative and security reasons. They used to be regularly produced in the district court. This has since been stopped for security concerns; undertrials are now being produced before the trial judge by videoconferencing.