Tags:
Journalism of Courage
GURGAON, March 20: For those languishing in prison after being arrested for violating the "dry laws", freedom was a far-fetched yearning. But there is a ray of hope, with news that Haryana will go "wet" next month. And the government is now keen on taking a lenient view of these undertrial "excise" cases.
"Most of the accused are from poor families, who cannot arrange to get the money for their bails," said one policeman. There are many such persons in district jails throughout Haryana. Said a jail official, "Though some of the undertrials were arrested for smuggling large quantities of liquor, most of them are paying the price for an aadha (half) or a pauwa (quarter)."Waiting outside the Gurgaon jail, the mother of a 25-year-old says: "My son was arrested just because he was drunk. What kind of a law is this?"
Under the excise law, a person can be convicted to six months in prison or a minimum of Rs 5,000 as fine, if his crime comes under the category of bailable offences.
In thenon-bailable category (more than two bottles of 750 ml each), the punishment is imprisonment of up to six months, a maximum of three years and a fine of Rs 10,000.
Jail officials are particularly worried about the intermingling of "excise" undertrials with hardened criminals. "There are no provisions in most of the jails to keep hardened criminals separated. Of course, they will `infect’ these rather simple undertrials to a certain extent," said an official.
A senior police official explained that many of those behind bars were actually "trying their luck to earn a quick rupee". "Just imagine, a man earning Rs 20 to Rs 30 per day will try his hand at bringing in one or two bottles, which will at least earn him Rs 100," he said.
Though the police and jail officials agree that the smugglers should be firmly dealt with, they believe that leniency should be shown towards cases where the quantity was less.
"`My son has been in jail for the past four months. The lawyers says that it will be 15 more daysbefore we can bail him out," says Hari Krishan, an auto-rickshaw driver from Janakpuri, New Delhi. Krishan narrated the story of how his 19-year-old son, Manish, got trapped in a liquor case. "Manish was learning to drive a car with one of his friends. But he never knew that the vehicle was being used for smuggling liquor. While my son was arrested at Bilaspur, the real culprit fled," he says with a choked voice. Padam Singh, a resident of Jacampura in Gurgaon, has been in prison for two months. "We are bailing him out today," says his brother-in-law, Ravinder.
He alleges that the police framed Padam. "He was picked up from his Jacampura residence. Actually, one of his friends was caught with liquor, and he probably gave his name to the police."
Twenty-seven-year-old, Suresh, a resident of Pataudi, was arrested three days ago with a pouch of country liquor but his family has not been able to bail him out. His sister-in-law, Asha says: "We do not have enough money to get him out." Suresh’s brother, Mukesh,said that he was a poor man and earned his bread after toiling the entire day in a hotel. A jail official said: "This is where one comes to understand the significance of social and economic disparities." And driving his point home, he added, "This disparity is obvious as all the undertrials lodged here under the Prohibition Act are from the lower strata of society."
