Abandoned by family and with no bail money, TN woman in jail for 300 days and counting

CHENNAI: Over 300 days have gone by since the Madras High Court suspended the sentence and granted bail to a life convict, who has been imprisoned since 2013. However, the 44-year-old woman prisoner is still confined to prison for want of financial aid and surety to fulfil the bail conditions. She is one of the hundreds of prisoners in the state languishing in Tamil Nadu prisons despite securing bail.

The court had granted relief to Radha (name changed) on the first hearing on December 20 last year and asked her to execute a bond of Rs 25,000, with sureties -- one of whom must be a blood relative.

With no visitors over the years, as she was lodged in the Special Prison for Women in Vellore, and her family cutting all ties with her, Radha has no chance of fulfilling the bond conditions.

Radha was arrested on September 1, 2012, on the charges of killing her 2-year-old daughter. On October 10, 2013, the Special Court for Bomb Blast Cases sentenced her to life under Section 302 of the IPC. She was shifted to the Special Prison for Women in Vellore and left in oblivion, with no visitors and no communication with her family members.

Activist and advocate KR Raja, who visited the Vellore prison to study the condition of abandoned prisoners, following an HC order in December 2019, provided Radha with the opportunity to share her side of the story and seek legal assistance. She appealed in the HC. "The evidence of the ocular witness is not consistent with the medical evidence. Further, there are several improbabilities in the evidence presented by the prosecution,” her counsel R Diwakaran said, quoting the court's directive.

The court suspended her sentence and granted her bail.

However, the main appeal has yet to be listed for the final hearing. "Though the high court has granted her bail, she is still in prison as no one has come forward to stand surety for her,” Diwakaran added.

Raja reached out to Radha's extended family in Sivaganga district but none of them were willing to act as sureties.

"They have disowned her, denying her the opportunity to step out of the prison, where she has already spent 11 years of her life,” he said, noting that he came across around 400 such ‘abandoned’ prisoners in central prisons across the state.

For Radha, providing the surety of a blood relative to meet the bail condition is not possible, Raja said, recalling that he pleaded with her two brothers and three sisters, but in vain. Her father has forbidden her mother from helping her.

Radha's case is a testament to a report by the Supreme Court's Centre for Research and Planning. It revealed that a total of 24,879 under-trial prisoners, including 830 prisoners in Tamil Nadu, were languishing as of December 31, 2023, despite having obtained bail. The reason for their prolonged detention is their socio-economic condition. Although the Ministry of Home Affairs launched a scheme to extend financial assistance of up to Rs 25,000 to prisoners who are not released within seven days of a bail order due to non-payment of fines, the scheme has yet to take effect.

"Apart from the financial issue, arranging sureties is a difficult task, as many of the convicts in prison have lost contact with their families. There is a need for an alternative mechanism to facilitate the release of such prisoners,” said an official from the prison department, who preferred to remain anonymous.