Tougher days ahead for UP gangsters
Prabhat Ranjan Deen
Lucknow, Nov 14: For the imprisoned gangsters and mafias of Uttar Pradesh like Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed and Bablu Shrivastava, it will soon become a dream for them to see the outer world. Having ensured that the most dreaded criminals and gangsters of the state are behind the bars, the Uttar Pradesh Government is now making arrangements for holding of their trials through video conferencing from inside the jail itself.
In a high-level meeting, the Chief Minister emphasized the need for an additional video conferencing room each in 72 jails and 73 courts of UP for conducting the appearance and trial of criminals under judicial remand and also directed officials to expedite the construction of the same.
It is worth mentioning here that CM Yogi recently flagged off the state-of-the-art Modern Prison Van equipped with CCTV cameras, panic button and better security measures to ensure safety of policemen and to monitor activities of criminals inside the van.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also called for seamless connectivity at video conferencing rooms with the installation of 5G, arguing that manual presentation of gangsters in courts is an expensive affair, which also requires a lot of police force. Besides, gangsters get an opportunity to meet their goons and hatch a fresh plot, he pointed out to improve the connectivity of video conferencing so that there is no problem in connectivity during remand and trial.
Stressing that video conferencing can help stop this, CM Yogi said that efforts should be made to install 5G technology to avoid disruptions and smooth conduct of the video conferencing during remand and trial. Yogi assured that a separate budget should be allocated for the video conferencing system, so that the system can be upgraded from time to time.
DG, Jail, Anand Kumar said that there are 72 operational jails in the state, out of which 62 are district and seven (07) central jails as well as one each Nari Bandi Niketan, Adarsh Jail and Kishore Sadan. The remand and trial proceedings of undertrial prisoners are held in 73 courts of the state. Kumar said that at present all jails and courts have one cell each for remand through video conferencing, but due to the high number of prisoners, the entire day is spent hearing remand cases. Therefore, a letter was written to the Government seeking construction of an additional video conferencing room in all the jails and courts of UP. DG Jail added that at present only remand proceedings are carried out through video conferencing. As such, permission was sought to conduct the trial of all the prisoners through video conferencing as well. With 100 percent handling of remand and trial of prisoners through video conferencing, the incidents of escape of undertrial prisoners would also be curbed. Besides, it will also help stop cases of criminals issuing threats to witnesses and conspiring to carry out crimes with the help of their goons, DG Jail said. A senior officer of the jail department also said that the notorious Ateeq is currently lodged in Sabarmati Jail, but he is brought to UP on different dates. In view of this risk, the process is on to bring Ateeq Ahmed to a high security prison in UP itself.
The top notorious criminals currently
in jails of Uttar Pradesh
1. Mukhtar Ansari, District Jail, Banda, Ghazipur
2. Vijay Singh, District Jail, Farrukhabad
3. Anil Dujana, District Jail, Ayodhya
4. Anoop Bhati, District Jail, Ayodhya
5. Surendra Pandit, District Prison, Kasganj
5. Sunder Bhati, District Jail, Sonbhadra
6. Amarmani Tripathi, District Jail, Gorakhpur
7. Gayatri Prajapati, Amethi, District Jail, Lucknow
8. Khan Mubarak, District Jail, Hardoi
9. Yogesh Bhadaura, District Jail, Meerut
10. Nahid Hasan, District Jail, Chitrakoot
11. Atiq Ahmed, Sabarmati Jail
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