Lucknow (The Hawk): Gang members incarcerated in Uttar Pradesh will now attend court hearings via video conferencing. The provision is considered as an effort to limit convicts' contact with the "outside world."
Officials have been tasked with installing more video conferencing equipment in 72 jails and 73 courts throughout the state. Currently, only criminal remand processes are conducted remotely.
Escapes of inmates awaiting trial would be reduced if remand and trial proceedings were conducted exclusively by video conference.
Anand Kumar, director-general of prisons, requested authorization from the state government to conduct a virtual trial of gang members.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath emphasised the necessity for criminals and gangsters to be tried in prison so that police do not have to transport them to court during trial proceedings.
Kumar emphasised that this would also prevent offenders from threatening witnesses and conspiring to commit crimes with the assistance of their aides during their court appearances.
According to Kumar, the state has 72 operating jails, 62 of which are district jails, seven central jails, a Nari Bandi Niketan, an Adarsh Jail, and a Kishore Sadan. In 73 courts inside the state, pretrial detainees undergo remand and trial proceedings.
Each jail and court has a single room equipped for video-conferencing remand procedures. However, because there are so many convicts, the entire day is devoted hearing remand cases.
Kumar claimed that a letter was sent to the government requesting the creation of an additional video conferencing space in all state jails and courts in order to conduct criminal trials via video conferencing.
Meanwhile, some well-known criminals lodged in UP jails include Mukhtar Ansari in Banda, Vijay Singh in Banda, Anil Dujana, Anoop Bhati in Ayodhya, Surendra Pandit in Kasganj, Sunder Bhati in Sonbhadra, Amarmani Tripathi in Gorakhpur, Gayatri Prajapati in Lucknow, Khan Mubarak in Hardoi, Yogesh Bhadauria in Meerut and Nahid Hasan in Chitrakoot.
(Inputs from Agencies)