Naxal prisoners protest 'torture' in Nagpur jail

Fri, Apr 11 12:55 AM

TWELVE suspected Naxalites, including Arun Ferreira of Mumbai and Murali Reddy have launched an indefinite hunger strike in the Central Jail to protest their alleged torture and harassment by the state police. However, jail authorities denied any such strike.

Deputy Inspector General (prison) Surendra Kumar said no inmate in Nagpur Central Jail is on hunger strike. Bandra resident Ferreira and 'senior Naxalite leader' Murali were arrested by the Nagpur police in May last year, who also recovered revolver and ultra-leftist literature from them.

It has been alleged that all the suspected Naxalite detainees were implicated in false cases by the police in the state and in the neighbouring states, like AP, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Murali and Ferreira have sent letters through their lawyer, Surendra Gadling, to the chief justice of Bombay High Court, the deputy chief minister, R.R. Patil, and the chairman of state human rights commission and requested them to stop the Naxal witch hunt.

The agitating prisoners have also raised some other demands, such as immediate release of suspected Maoists Mallesh and Jayakka who were acquitted by the court but detained by police under the prevention Act, scrapping section 110 of the criminal procedure code as it is misused by the police, ending solitary confinement of undertrials and extending meeting time for lawyers and relatives by half an hour. On the other hand, Surendra Gadling, lawyer of the suspected Naxalite prisoners, claimed that all 12 prisoners have been fasting since April 7 to press for their demands.

"I met them in the jail and apprised senior jail authorities of the situation," Gadling said. He pointed out that the priosners are highlighting the state police's inhumanity.

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