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Mumbai: 1,000 Arthur Road inmates will move to Taloja jail

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With the Arthur Road Jail becoming more and more crowded by the day, the jail administration has now decided to shift around 1,000 of its 3,000 inmates to the more spacious Taloja Central Jail. A list of inmates is currently being prepared and some inmates are expected to be moved to the new location in January.

Confirming the development, superintendent of police SV Achkme of Taloja jail said, “We have started preparing a list of the inmates and plan to shift around 1,000 inmates here. Two barracks are lying vacant, which can accommodate  around 400 to 500 prisoners.”

In 2012, a similar initiative had been taken by the then Inspector General of Police (prisons), Surendra Kumar, as there were around 2,600 inmates at Arthur Road Jail. He had shifted around 300 of those inmates to Taloja jail. Apart from this, he had prepared a list of around 500 inmates whose trial had been kept on a priority basis. Eventually, many of these undertrials were convicted by the courts and were moved to other jails across Maharashtra. This helped clear space in the prisons and brought down the number of inmates to 1,800.

A prison source said, “In one-and-a-half years, the jail has again become crowded, due to which jail authorities are forced to cram as many prisoners into a cell as possible.”

Prison authorities have been preparing a list of prisoners arrested recently, as their trail will begin in a year or more.

“We have made a plan to reduce the number of inmates here and have prepared a list of around 200 inmates. After the court order comes through, we will start shifting them to Taloja jail in the first week of January. We are also trying to figure out which other inmates — whose trial will begin in a year or more — could be shifted,” said an Arthur Road Jail authority.

Superintendent of police, BD Burkule of Arthur Road Jail, said, “As soon as we get permission from the court, we will shift the inmates because Arthur Road Jail has become too crowded.”

Arthur Road Jail was originally built to accommodate 800 prisoners. At the most, it has the capacity to house 1074 inmates. The jail has had the distinction of housing some of the most infamous under-trails, including 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab.

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