The Chief Minister Mayawati on her birthday on January 15
last year announced the release of 13,072 prisoners lodged in
different jails of Uttar Pradesh. While the advertisements
released on the occasion suggested Mayawati had a big heart,
an RTI reply by the Prisons Department says the undertrials
actually got freedom as a result of normal process.
Also, while from the advertisements it appeared that the prisoners were released at one stroke of the Chief Minister's pen in January, the RTI reply says the undertrials had already been released much before that — between June 2008 and October 2008.
The reply by Prisons Department came on an RTI plea by Salim Beig, a resident of Moradabad and member of Amnesty International.
Categorically mentioning that the prisoners were not released on the Chief Minister's order, the RTI reply by P K Mishra, DIG (Prisons), says that as many as 13,620 jail inmates were released with due clearances from the courts where their cases were pending.
It states that 13,226 undertrials were released under Section 436 (1) of CrPC, which says that if a person is granted bail, but is unable to furnish the bail bond within seven days, he should be declared indigent, and released from jail on his own personal bond.
Another 364 undertrials were released under Section 436 (A) of the CrPC.
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