Vasantha*, 65, pleads each time her family or lawyers come to meet her at Yerwada central prison in Maharashtra’s Pune. It’s been over two years since she got bail, but she is still in jail. And she isn’t the only one.
Hundreds of undertrials are languishing in overcrowded prisons in Maharashtra, because just like Vasantha, they don’t have the money to fulfil their bail conditions. Even deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had raised this issue at a home department meeting in September, saying that he had directed the authorities to find ways for their release. He tweeted that 1,641 such prisoners were behind bars despite bail.
