Vinod Chaudhry has been in jail for the last 14 years on charge of allegedly murdering his neighbour in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, and despite being granted bail by a court in 2003, he has not been released as his impoverished family has failed to pay Rs24,000 bail surety bond. This is not a one-off case in Uttar Pradesh.
“In around 70 per cent of the cases people are still in jail because they have failed to pay fine or cannot furnish surety bonds as asked by the court,” Jail Minister Balram Yadav said.
“Justice seems very costly for the poor in India. A poor continues to languish in jail even after he gets bail because he does not have the money to pay surety. There are thousands of such prisoners and the Government is indifferent,” lenin Raghuvanshi, Executive Director, Peoplke’s Vigilance Committee of Human Rights (PVCHR) told The Pioneer.
For many lawyers in the High Court, Vinod’s case is well known as his sixteen-year-old Suraj Chaudhry is a regular to the HC compound.
“I am waiting for advocate Neeraj Sharma for over an hour. I am not going home till I get an answer whether he can get my father out of jail,” Suraj said, adding that his father was falsely implicated in the case because he belongs to a lower caste. “We are dalit so my father was sent to jail while a rich man from our village who belongs to upper caste and is behind the murder is roaming free. In 2003 the court granted him bail, but he has not been released,” he added.
Talking about the case, Md Anis Siddiqui said, “The court has given Vinod bail on surety bond of Rs24,000. As he has not been able to deposit the money Vinod is in jail for the last 12 years. He has to get the money… Unless he deposits surety in the court he will not be released.”
Suraj is illiterate. He works in a roadside eatery while his mother works as a maid. Both of them earn around Rs5,000 per month which is not enough for the family of six — that includes grandparents of Suraj — to pay Rs24,000 as surety.
The case of Jai Ram Saber, a tribal, was somewhat very similar to Vinod. But he was lucky as Food and Civil Supplies Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Government Raghuraj Pratap Singh, also called Raja Bhaiya, had got him released from jail. In 1989, Jai Ram, a native of Kalahandi in Odhisa, who was working as a pharmacist with a quack in Rampur, was arrested in a murder case.
It was Jai Ram’ love for sports that got him close to Raja Bhaiya, The then Minister was in jail in 2010 after weapons were recovered from his house.
later Raja Bhaiya was exonerated and the case was withdrawn.
“I was in Bareilly jail. I love sports and used to play volleyball there. There I met Jai Ram, a lanky youth who was a good player. There I came to know that he is in jail since 1989. The court had given him a bail in 1992 as he did not have money to pay two sureties of Rs 8,000 each he is still in jail,” Raja Bhaiya said.
Raja Bhaiya paid the surety of Jai Ram and freed him. He now works as a caretaker of Raja Bhaiya’s house in lucknow.
Jai Ram, who since has got married and has a son, said he had tried to arrange for the surety amount. “My relatives are very poor. When they heard I am in jail they stopped communicating with me. I was in a big trouble. With no help coming from any quarter I was almost in a foreign land till Bhaiya came as a savior.”
Many people are languishing in jail as they do not have access to either lawyer or money to pay the surety. The jails are choc-o-bloc with such people.
The Government officials admit that jails in Uttar Pradesh are overcrowded. R.K Dwivedi, an official in Jail administration said that against the capacity to keep 48970 prisoners jails have 84228 inmates which is 172 per cent of its capacity.
The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said all the Indian jails are facing same problem. In its report it said while the available capacity is 3, 43,169, the total inmate population is much higher at 3, 85,135, making the occupancy rate 112.2 per cent.
Jail Minister Balram Yadav said reasons for overcrowding of jails could be many like prisoners not getting bail. “But in around 70 per cent of the cases people are still in jail because they have failed to pay fine or cannot furnish surety bonds as asked by the court. In 2013 a similar case came to light when a women was incarcerated in jail for 19 years despite she got bail from the court. Her son managed the money and moved the High court to free his mother. Government has information about such cases. We cannot help. There is a judicial process involved in it,” Yadav said.
lenin Raghuvanshi of PVCHR said 90 per cent of these under trials are poor who do not have any access to the lawyers. “Have you ever seen a rich businessman or powerful politician languishing in jail for that longIJ No. They have money power and can turn the case on its head and roam free while an innocent poor continues languishing in jail,” he said.