Eleven months ago, on May 13, 2015, Herald exposed how the inmates at Sada sub-jail located at Headland Sada in Mormugao were getting all kinds of illegal facilities inside the premises. Banned products like tobacco, alcohol, drugs and most importantly cell phones are being sneaked into the premises which should ideally serve as a reformative centre for inmates. Following the Herald expose, jail officials had unofficially accepted it and assured that all such illegal activity would stop once the convicts are shifted to the new central jail at Colvale.
As promised, authorities shifted about 70 convicts to Colvale but the situation at Sada which should have changed unfortunately remained the same and the prison came to light for all the wrong reasons. Often the jail is in the news due to raids and confiscation of mobile phones by jail authorities or sometimes for incidents of assault taking place between inmates or between inmates and police authorities. Most recently, the jail was in the limelight after mining activist and panch member from Cavrem, Ravindra Velip alleged that he was brutally assaulted inside the jail on March 23, 2016.
Soon after the incident was reported, jail authorities ordered an inquiry into the incident and the same was monitored by Inspector General of Prisons, Elvis Gomes. Later, a two member committee headed by Superintended of Sada jail, Sabaji Shetye, who is also the Deputy collector, and sub-divisional magistrate of the jail, Bhanudas Pednekar also conducted an inquiry of their own. However, after quizzing over 15 people including jail staff and inmates, the panel submitted its report and ruled out any such incident having occurred in the jail premises.
The outcome of the magisterial inquiry and whether or not there was a case of assault can only be ascertained after the report is submitted. However, it has been proved beyond doubt that all is not well within the Sada jail walls. Hence, most electronic devices inside the jail are defunct and instead of seeking immediate repairs, jail authorities are taking it slow to carry out formalities. It seems as though they don’t want the devices, especially the CCTV cameras to start working again.
Administrative issues
To fully understand things better and to point out the issues at the jail, Herald conducted a week long investigation. After speaking to many people, including the police, escort cell staff, jail staff and officials, it has been understood that the jail has been suffering from severe administrative issues. While there have been an insurmountable number of problems due to the presence of defunct electronic gadgets, the growing indifference between jail guards and officer ranked policemen has worsened the matter.
This has lead to many of the inmates being able to procure drugs, liquor, tobacco and even weapons like knives. “Everyone knows what is happening inside the jail. Money makes everyone blind. Such illegal activities inside the Sada jail are on the rise, right under the noses of jail officials,” an escort policeman told Herald.
Herald also spoke with a few people who were lodged in the jail for minor crimes and with other escort policemen who have knowledge of the working of the system. Interestingly, most of them said that some of the jail guards act as transit agents and supply the banned products to the inmates at double the cost of the market rate. “One only needs to have money in hand and the knowledge of whom to place the order with,” sources informed Herald.
CCTV cameras that do not record
The State government has made provisions for CCTV cameras and other devices in the jail in a bid to restrict illegal activity. A total of 24 CCTV cameras were installed in 2012 at strategic locations to comprehensively monitor the jail and to keep up a heightened level of security. However, these cameras are of no use because they only provide live footage and do not have recording capability. What is alarming is that jail officials noticed the fault about six months ago but failed to act on it. Till today, repair work is yet to be carried out. “We have CCTV cameras focusing on all important locations inside the premises like the passages, open areas, the entrance, at the main gate and at the food serving areas. Many cameras still have recording capability but the ones at crucial locations have been damaged by inmates. They also change the direction of the cameras as per their whims and fancies. Sadly, whenever the police have approached us for recordings, we are unable to provide them with the same as the system is yet to be repaired. If the cameras were functional, then the actual truth in the Velip assault case would not be such a mystery,” said a jail official under the condition of
anonymity.
Non-functionality of frisking machine
The frisking machine near the main entrance of the jail has also been non-functional for the last several months. In the absence of the services of the machine, the IRB personnel have been conducting a personal search of the inmates and this causes a lot of hardship to them. “Due to the absence of the frisking machine, we are forced to conduct searches manually. However, most of the times, many inmates do not cooperate with us. Like for example, if we ask them to remove their shoes so that we can check them, they in turn stare back and ask us to remove the shoes from their feet. Sometimes it is the same with their clothes. If we try to become strict with them, they threaten us in the name of human rights or court,” informed an IRB staff.
Jail officials confirm that they have intimated their higher ups but they still waiting for further directions as to what to do about it.
Video conference not used effectively
The investigation also revealed that the jail has a video conference facility so that the authorities can make best use of it and the risk of taking and bringing under trials would have been reduced. However, even this facility is not effectively used. There have been numerous confiscations of cell phones from the inmates during various raids conducted. Hence, a proposal to install network jammers in the premises was put forward. However, even this proposal has no takers in the State administration.
Harassment and ragging
Another serious issue is the harassment or ragging of new inmates by the older ones. It has been learned that the jail has now adopted the tradition of ragging wherein all new inmates coming in would be subjected to the torture of unnecessary harassment. A senior jail official stated that the ‘assault’ on Velip must have been a case of ragging by the inmates. He however, ruled out the possibility of a brutal attack as specified by the victim in his complaint.
A jail is meant to be a ‘correction home’ and not something that the Sada jail is currently. It has been proved without a shadow of a doubt on numerous occasions that the Sada jail needs immediate attention before it becomes a den for criminals. Over to the State administration to fix the issue!
