Tihar to release 3,000 inmates to ease congestion amid COVID-19

New Delhi: In a bid to contain the rising coronavirus pandemic, Delhi’s Tihar Jail is all set to release around 3,000 prison inmates in the next 3-4 days. The decision by the jail administration comes on a day the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 467, with a death toll of nine thus far.

According to news agency ANI, of the 3,000 prisoners to be released, while 1,500 convicts will be released on parole, the remaining 1,500-who are undertrial prisoners-will be out on interim bail.

The exercise, however, would not include hardened criminals, jail officials said. The move, said the officials, was being taken to ease congestion in the jail, which is Asia’s largest, in the wake of the COVID-19 threat.

Today’s development, notably, comes three days after the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case-Akshay, Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay-were finally executed, more than seven years after the ghastly crime took place. The four were executed as they finally ran out of options to save themselves, after strategic filing of pleas by them had earlier led to their hanging being deferred thrice.

On Sunday, several people were injured after clashes broke out between prison inmates and jail officials in Kolkata’s Dum Dum Central Jail over restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus oandemic.