Video-conferencing at Dasna Jail on menu,cops now breathe easy

Sources said besides Dasna,the ambitious project of installing video-conferencing will also be initiated in Kanpur,Mirzapur and Varanasi jails.

Dasna prison superintendent V K Singh said the proposal is being thought over by senior authorities. Sources said it is at an advanced stage.

The administration claims video-conferencing will be treated as e-courts and would relieve the police of the burden of ferrying jail inmates to court. “The proposal is very promising and we would welcome any such decision,” Singh said.

There are around 4,000 inmates,including undertrials,lodged in Dasna Jail,and authorities believe that at any given time,between 400 and 600 undertrails have to be commuted regularly to the district court for attendance.

“We already have a shortage of personnel and the process of producing these undertrails in court eat further into our manpower,” a senior police officer said. “If implemented,the video-conferencing facility will solve this problem.”

Suresh Chand,jail superintendent of Varanasi Central Jail,said a lot of risk is involved while escorting undertrials to the court and bringing them back safely,and a posse of police personnel are required for the job.

DASNA FACTS
Dasna Jail is approximately six kilometres from Ghaziabad district court,where accused and undertrials are taken

4,000 inmates (approximately) in Dasna Jail

400 to 600 undertrials have to be commuted regularly to court

Some high-profile accused
* Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli,accused in the Nithari serial murder cases
* Moti Goyal,alias Chotta Harshad Mehta,accused in multi-crore land scam
* Western UP gangster Ajay JadejaSome lapses in transit
January 5,2008: Kuldeep,alias Lukka,lodged in Surajpur lock-up fled from police custody while being taken to court
February 4,2008: Chattrapal,accused in kidnapping Adobe India chief Naresh Gupta’s son Anant,fled from district courts
February 15,2008: A young man arrested on charges of mistreating animals fled from Sector 24 police station while being taken to court
August 5,2008: Undertrials in Dasna Jail Inderpal and Manoj,accused of shooting a woman in 2005,fled from a crowded lock-up of Ghaziabad court