Financial constraints and lack of support from friends or relatives are denying scores of undertrial prisoners the freedom offered to them in the State.
There are around 1,403 undertrial prisoners (UTP) languishing in the State jails, according to an estimate of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority, which started a campaign to identify the eligible ones for release from jails in the State.
The UTPs in Kerala include the 95 people who could not walk free despite the courts granting them bail. The inability to find sureties, who could guarantee their presence in courts when required, or the incapability to furnish the bail bond prescribed by the courts stand in between them and freedom.
In such cases, the Authority would initiate steps for approaching the courts concerned to relax the bail conditions. The Authority would also move the court to modify the bail conditions and release the prisoners on self-bond. It will also depute paralegal volunteers to meet the relatives of the prisoners to pursue them to secure the release of the incarcerated persons. However, there are no provisions for the Authority to raise the funds for furnishing bail bonds, said those at the Authority.
Last year, 37,220 prisoners were released from jails across the country following the campaign ‘Release UTRC@75.’ In Kerala, the campaign helped 68 people walked out of the prisons.
The State-level review of the prisoners eligible for release was held on Wednesday.
The district-level committees with the District and Sessions Judge as its chairperson and District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police, Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority and the Officer in charge of Prisons as members, will review the cases. The National Legal Services Authority had issued a Standard Operating Procedure for the functioning of undertrial review committees in the country.
A National authority has proposed to hold three rounds of adalats in jails to settle compoundable cases of the UTP. The role of the State-level committees and the Authority is limited to providing recommendations for the release of the eligible prisoners. The release of the prisoners will be subject to the satisfaction of the courts concerned, said sources.
