Inspector General (IG), Zahur Haider Zaidi, one of the accused in the Kotkhai custodial death case, who is currently out on bail, shared his experiences on how education changed an illiterate convict lodged in Model Burail jail on Tuesday. During his jail term, he used to teach the convicts as a way to utilise his time in a constructive way. The 1994 batch IPS officer narrates how the names of inmates were changed as they entered prisons and people stopped addressing them with their original names. The IG said he was given the name 'Tuntuna IG' at Model Burail jail. Zaidi was among certain people including women, who were invited to share their prison experiences and talk about how to improve the prison system, at a Roundtable Consultation of the 'Reintegration Policy and Rehabilitation Scheme for Women Prison Inmates' at Institute of Correctional Administration (ICA), Sector 26. Sharing his experience, Zaidi said, he came across an inmate who was given the name Sadda (rotten) and nobody addressed him with his original name thereafter (name withheld). “The inmate was convicted for a double murder when he was around 20-years-old. He was 27 when I met him in Model Burail Jail. I learnt that the inmate was not literate. I started teaching him along with other inmates. This was my way to utilise my time in a constructive manner. You will be surprised, after one and a half months of attending the classes, Sadda became conscious about his identity i.e. his real name.” He narrated an incident of when a jail warder came and called him Sadda and his response left everybody stunned. “Probably, it was for the first time when Sadda stood, snubbed the warder and told him to call him by his real name from the next time," he said. Zaidi divided his experiences in two folds. First was literacy and the second was economic independence. He said, "I spent at least 1,589 days in at least three prisons including two at Shimla: The Central Jail Kanda and the Sub Jail Kaithu, Himachal Pradesh and one in Model Burail jail, Chandigarh." IG Zaidi was lodged in Model Burail jail between March, 2020 and October, 2022. He was granted a regular bail from Punjab and Haryana high court. Meanwhile, two former women prisoners, who had spent a long time in Punjab jails, also shared their experiences during the video conference of the discussion. They shared challenges about their journey after release. The consultation was organised by the ICA and the Department of Social Security & Women and Child Development, Punjab. It aimed to finalise the recommendations and measures required for the Punjab State Policy for the Reintegration of Women prisoners and a scheme for the Rehabilitation of women prisoners after their release from prison, Dr Upneet Lalli, Head Coordinator, Training & Research, ICA, said.
