Ahmedabad, August 24: The jailors of Gujarat prisons will not only ‘tackle’ the prisoners lodged in their jail, but will also identify those prisoners who need legal aid. They will have to approach district legal aid centres of the Gujarat high court to arrange legal aid for such prisoners.
The prison department is all set to streamline co-ordination between the jailors of Gujarat jails and district legal aid centres in the state. “The department will use jailors to identify prisoners who are in need of legal aid and their cases will be forwarded to legal aid centres,” inspector general of prisons, Keshav Kumar, told DNA.
Kumar said that jailors have been given instructions to this effect, he said.
The move came after a senior citizen, Daliya Nayak, lodged in Chhota Udepur jail, was fond to live in the jail because his sons did not want to bail him out. Kumar, who had gone to the jail for annual inspection, was pained to see him and asked him about securing bail.
“Nayak told me that as he was old, his sons had refused to secure bail for him,” Kumar told DNA. Nayak further told Kumar that he would now die in the jail. Incidentally, Nayak was arrested for a theft in 1990. After he was bailed out, he didn’t report to the court for trial and so was again arrested on April 17, 2009.
After Kumar’s intervention, Nayak was provided legal aid and he was bailed out on Friday. “Nayak has been sent to his village by the jailor, who has contacted the village sarpanch to take care of him, as his sons don’t want to have him in their houses,” Kumar said.
“Even though we initiated the move to bail him out, it was the efforts of the legal aid cell, which actually delivered the results,” superintendent, Vadodara jail, Jayesh Mandaviya,
told.
–Agencies