Exploring the harsh realities faced by those unjustly imprisoned in India, their struggles for survival, Humra Quraishi writes about the urgent need for systemic reforms to ensure transparency, accountability, and humane treatment within the prison system.

Photography: Vinta Nanda

Current Cases of Wrongful Imprisonment

Once again, I’m focusing on those jailed. The immediate provocation for this is recent news reports: Politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son, Umar Ansari, has claimed in court that his father was given poisoned food while lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda jail, with no medical facility available to save his life. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s blood sugar levels are a matter of concern as he sits imprisoned in Tihar Jail. Kejriwal is severely diabetic, and obviously, his jailed state would be affecting his blood sugar levels. This week’s news reports also highlighted the plight of jailed BRS leader K Kavitha, who is also lodged in Tihar Jail and had to be “rushed” to Delhi’s DDU hospital. These are just some of the reported cases this week.

Injustice, Prison Reform, Human Rights, Wrongful Imprisonment, Justice System, Under-trials, Prison Conditions, Transparency, Accountability, and the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, the poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz with regard to these issues are highlighted in this article. The Documentary "After The Storm" by Shubhradeep Chakravorty sheds light on the harsh realities faced by those unjustly imprisoned in India. The urgent need for systemic reforms to ensure Transparency, Accountability, and humane treatment within the Prison System is evident. Addressing Police Brutality and improving Prison Conditions for Under-trials and those wrongfully imprisoned are essential steps towards achieving justice. By focusing on these critical areas, we can honour the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Faiz Ahmad Faiz and work towards a more just society.

What is the fate of all those who languish in the jails and prisons of the country for years? A substantial percentage of them are under-trials and, with that, technically innocent, yet they waste their lives in that jailed state. Even when proven innocent and finally released, the going gets absolutely tough for them. They face not just economic struggles but also major social disadvantages affecting their health and livelihood and related offshoots.

These realities hit hard after viewing the late filmmaker Shubhradeep Chakravorty’s documentary, ‘After The Storm,’ which focuses on seven young Muslim men - Mukhtar Ahmed, Md. Fassiuddin Ahmed, Umar Farooque, Moutasim Billah, Harith Ansari, Md. Musarrat Hussain ‘Bobby’, Shaikh Abdul Kaleem - who were jailed with terror charges until they were proven innocent and acquitted by various courts. Chakravorty had told me that these seven were among hundreds who had been arrested, falsely implicated in bogus charges. He detailed how young Muslim men are detained and arrested by the police on the flimsiest of charges or even without a charge, merely on suspicion or to create an atmosphere of fear. Even if they are acquitted after years, they are ruined for times to come. Nobody even bothers to ask this vital question: What happens to the lives of innocent men whom the system had caged for so many years?

This documentary was made several years ago, but the situation seems no better today. After reading books written by several of those who were previously imprisoned, one wonders: Shouldn’t books authored by former prisoners be read by the heads of various Human Rights Commissions? The stark truth is that something or everything is wrong with the way the system treats the imprisoned, yet there is no stopping nor questioning. Where is the much-required transparency? Why should we go only by police hand-outs? Why shouldn’t a non-governmental agency be allowed to carry out simultaneous investigative probes? Why shouldn’t the biased and corrupt officials be sidetracked and exposed? Why shouldn’t non-jailed citizens be aware of prison conditions and how safe and secure they are? Don’t overlook the fact that last year, several prisoners in various jails of Uttar Pradesh were found to be HIV positive in that jailed state.

Another reality not to be overlooked is that it isn’t difficult to arrest an innocent person and heap charges on him; with that, he languishes as an under-trial. Neither can one ignore the patent one-liners that go along with the arrests - the arrested has ‘confessed’ his or her ‘crime’ to the police. Who will believe that the arrested ‘confessed’ without torture sessions? We are well aware that the police can make you confess to any possible crime amid torture sessions.

Isn’t it time that a full-fledged commission is set up, which conducts a thorough investigation of the functioning of jails and the treatment meted out to those languishing there? I leave you to ponder and think about what Mahatma Gandhi had to say about the jailed. To quote from the November 1947 issue of Harijan: “All criminals should be treated as patients, and the jails should be hospitals admitting this class of patients for treatment and cure. No one commits crime for the fun of it. It is a sign of a diseased mind. The causes of a particular disease should be investigated and removed. They need not have palatial buildings when their jails become hospitals. No country can afford that, much less can a poor country like India. But the outlook of the jail staff should be that of physicians and nurses in a hospital. The prisoners should feel that the officials are their friends. They are there to help them regain their mental health and not to harass them in any way. The popular governments have to issue necessary orders, but meanwhile, the jail staff can do not a little to humanize their administration.”

Ending with these lines of Faiz Ahmad Faiz:

LOVE'S PRISONERS
Wearing the hangman’s noose, like a necklace,
The singers kept on singing day and night,
Kept jingling the ankle-bells of their fetters
And the dancers jigged on riotously.
We who were neither in this camp nor that
Just stood watching them enviously,
Shedding silent tears.
Returning, we saw that the crimson
Of flowers had turned pale
And on probing within, it seemed
That where the heart once was
Now lingered only stabbing pain.
Around our necks the hallucination of a noose
And on our feet the dance of fetters.