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Maharashtra prison authorities fail to produce accused in courts on 55 dates: SC orders inquiry

NEW DELHI: Expressing its strongest displeasure the way the Maharashtra Prison offcials repeatedly failed to produce an undertrial accused before the trial court on a majority of hearing dates, the Supreme Court criticised the jail staff and said it was shocked at the conduct of the State authorities. We are shocked at the conduct of the State authorities. The production of an accused before the Court is not only to ensure speedy trial but more importantly, as a safeguard so that the prisoner is not abused otherwise, and he comes directly in contact with the Court so as to air his grievances if any, against the authorities. We find that there has been grave infraction of such fundamental safeguard, which is appalling and shocking. We deprecate the same., the top court remarked. A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Prashant Kumar Mishra made these observations while dealing with a case where the accused -- Sashi alias Shahi Chikna Vivekanand Jurmani -- who was in the custody for more than four years, was not presented before the Trial Court on 55 out of a total of 85 trial dates. We direct the Director General of Prisons, State of Maharashtra or whoever is the designated Head of Department of Prisons, to conduct a personal inquiry into the matter and fix responsibility and take action against the persons concerned. It is made clear that if any attempt is made to protect or shield any person, the Director General of Prisons/Head of Department of Prisons to whom we are entrusting the inquiry, shall be personally held responsible for the same, the apex court said in its order. It also said that a report in this regard should be submitted to this Court by filing an affidavit personally affirmed by the aforesaid officer, within two months from December 3. While delving into the merits of the present matter, the court said it find that a case for bail has been made out. Accordingly, the petitioner be released on bail, subject to such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the concerned Court, said the top court. The petitioner, Jurmani, sought bail in connection with an FIR in 2021, registered at police station Vitthalwadi, Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra. The initial allegation against the petitioner in the FIR was that he, along with others, including co-accused Umesh alias Omi Bansilal Kishnani had stabbed the deceased, a Police Constable. However, the deceased, who died after two months of the incident, had clearly stated in his statement that the petitioner along with co-accused, Kishnani had only assaulted him with fists and kicks. Further, the deceased had also stated that it was co-accused Naresh who had inflicted knife injury on the Police Constable. In the statement of the Police Constable, Ganesh Ashok Damale, he has not named anybody and only described the physical built of the accused. The petitioner submitted that he was is in custody for over four years without any criminal antecedent and the co-accused Kishnani, who is identically situated, had been granted bail. It was further submitted that the trial is going on and out of 85 dates in the trial, on 55 dates, the petitioner was not even produced before the Court.