79 jailbirds to swap uniform with convocation gown

It’s convocation time and students are eagerly waiting to be rewarded for the fruits of their labour. Only, the venue is Sabarmati Jail and the students are jail inmates.

Suspended IPS officer DG Vanzara, Ahmedabad serial blasts accused Kayamuddin Kapadia and Sajal Jain, convicted in the Bijal Joshi rape case, along with 76 others, will queue up to get their diploma and degree certificates from Annamalai Open University on September 3.

Vanzara will be accepting a Masters of Science degree along with other 29 others who will get Masters degrees in different fields. Thirty-eight students will get diploma certificates, while 11 will be awarded post-graduate diplomas. Sajal Jain and accused in the Patan gangrape case, Atul Patel, too will be awarded Masters degrees. Kapadia will acquire a diploma at the event.

Prisoners from Vadodara, Surat, Palanpur, Rajkot, Lajpour, Mahesana, Junagadh, Himmatnagar and Ahmedabad had taken up different courses offered by the university.

Additional director general of police, prisons, PC Thakur, said Sabarmati Jail was the only prison in the country to hold such a convocation programme. The convocation is being held for the second year in a row. “This is an initiative to rehabilitate them and help them enter the mainstream through education,” he said.
Officials from the university and other religious organisations will participate in the convocation ceremony. Superintendents of all the 24 jails in the state will also be present at the function.