Naya Nagar riots case: Six accused write to HC, claiming they are illegally confined to 8×8 cell throughout the day

MUMBAI: Six people arrested in January this year in connection with the riots in Naya Nagar in Mira Road have claimed that they are illegally confined to an 8-feet by 8-feet cell in Thane jail. In their complaint to various authorities, including the Bombay high court, they have also said that they are allowed to go out of their cells only for an hour, while other prisoners are allowed to do so for seven hours a day.
In the complaint, their lawyer has said that the illegal confinement has adversely affected the mental health of the six young men and they have developed suicidal tendencies.
On January 22, Naya Nagar was gripped in tension after a mob of around 50 people forcibly stopped and vandalized some vehicles carrying ‘Jai Shri Ram’ flags when they were passing through the locality. The Mira Road police arrested 21 people in connection with the riots and six of them — Zaid Ashraf Sayyed, Adil Hasnain Khan, Zuhaib Abdul Malik Khan, Mohammed Kasim Rafiq Sayyed, Rehman Tajuddin Shaikh and Javed Chand Miya – all residents of Naya Nagar, are lodged in Thane central jail. The remaining accused are lodged in Arthur Road, Taloja and Kalyan jails.
The complaint filed by their advocate claimed that while the other accused lodged in other jails are treated at par with other prisoners, the six lodged in Thane jail are discriminated against and are allowed to step out of their cells only for an hour during the day.
The complaint added that many of these accused are around 20 years of age, having no antecedents, but they are treated differently and “such treatment to prisoners amounts to infringement of the fundamental right to be treated equal, at par with other prisoners,” the complaint stated.
It added that these six prisoners are lodged in an 8-feet by 8-feet cell throughout the day and are allowed to step out of the cell only for an hour in a day, while other prisoners are set free from their cells at 7am in the morning and are allowed to move freely within the prison till noon. They are again released from their cells in the afternoon for two hours – between 3pm and 5pm.
“It is not a case of any misbehaviour on the part of the prisoners that such treatment is being given to them. They are not convicts, they are under-trial prisoners and till they are proven guilty, they must be treated as innocent citizens of free India,” it asserted.
Apart from seeking orders to grant the six accused limited liberty available to all other undertrial prisoners within the jail, the plea also seeks a compensation of ₹10 lakh to each of the six accused for infringement of their fundamental rights. The plea also seeks appropriate psychiatric assistance to the six prisoners, claiming that the illegal confinement has taken a toll on their mental health.
A senior prisons officer said that no undertrial prisoner is confined to his cell throughout the day. All of them are allowed to step outside their cells as per rules, he maintained.