No escorts to produce undertrials

BANGALORE: Last week, Sangram Singh and other accused in the stamp paper case could not be produced in the special court, barely 200 yards from the Parappana Agrahara jail where they are lodged. Why? For want of escorts.
Bangalore���s record in providing escort facility is the worst in the state. While the state government attributes this dismal record to heavy traffic and long distances to the courts, it has no answer as to why undertrials cannot be escorted even if the distance is just 200 yards.
The special court judge had pulled up prisons staff for recurring delay in producing undertrials.He had opined that there could be no reason for delay as the undertrials were lodged barely a few hundred yards away from the court.
Production of the undertrials through video conferencing too was contemplated. "Escorting them (undertrials) to court is faster than activating the video conferencing facility,"an advocate at the court hall said.
For the record, barely half of the 22,039 undertrials in Bangalore Central jail were produced before courts during March-May this year.
In June-July, only 61 per cent of undertrials were produced while the ratio was over 90 per cent in other places like Mangalore, Madikeri, Gulbarga and Mysore.
Around 400 undertrials are produced before courts in city every day.
In an affidavit filed before the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday, the state Home Secretary stated that 12,420 undertrials were produced before courts as against 22,039 who had to be produced.
While the long distance from Central jail to courts in the city was a factor, the state also attributed the lapse to heavy traffic, which they maintained, led to delay in production of undertrials.
The HC had observed that "nonproduction would amount to curtailing the liberty of undertrials," and asked the department to iron out the technical difficulties.
A senior police officer said: "When undertrials are not produced before court, the cases are adjourned to several weeks. This is leading to delay in adjudicating the matters and also a reason for the mounting number of cases."
To avoid the delay, the escort parties can leave early from the jail, he felt.
However, the top brass of the City Armed Reserve which handles escort duty in the city maintain that they have adequate personnel and vehicles at their disposal, "to meet all requirements of escorting undertrials from Central jail to various courts and hospitals too."