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Has the Indian government constructed a special cell for the fugitive liquor baron, Vijay Mallya?
The Quint has accessed the inspection report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) for the period starting 1 November 2010 to 31 July 2017. The report reveals that the jail is not only overcrowded but also doesn’t have enough toilets, bathing places and security guards.
The CAG report has no mention of an independent building with a separate cell and attached bathroom where the government proposes to keep Mallya if extradited to India from UK.
The RTI activist, Vihar Dhurve, managed to access the CAG report under the RTI Act, 2005.
The inspection report says:
On Wednesday, 12 September 2018, the Westminster Court in London, during Vijay Mallya’s extradition hearing, watched the Arthur Road Jail video submitted by the Indian authorities. The court had earlier demanded a video of the jail from the Indian government to check on its condition, following Mallya’s claims of the jail being in “poor condition” and having “no natural light”.
The eight-minute-long video, as reported by CNN-IBN, shows the barrack number 12 of the jail, where Mallya will be lodged, situated in an independent building. It lists six important features of the cell:
The one-year-old CAG inspection report shows lack of all basic amenities in Arthur Road Jail, which the government claimed the jail has in the eight-minute-long video submitted in Westminster Court. The report also doesn’t mention an independent building or cell under construction.
So has the government built a special cell for fugitive Mallya so that they succeed in extraditing him from UK?
But can it be as luxurious as shown in the video with a 40-inch TV and a modern bathroom?
The Arthur Road Jail has a sanctioned capacity of 804 prisoners but on an average, the prison has 342 percent excess prisoners.
The report also mentioned that some cells which have capacity of 196 prisoners were on an average stuffed with 825 prisoners.
As per the Model Prison Manual, there are three types of accommodation as mentioned below:
Secondly, the prison requires 275 covered bathing places but has only “8 open bathroom platforms”.
If indeed the government has constructed a new cell for Mallya, then will it bend time and again to accommodate the needs of other offenders, charged with similar crimes as Mallya?
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