Nobody should be sent to jail: G.N. Saibaba

Nobody should be sent to jail: G.N. Saibaba

Former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba, who was acquitted of the charges against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, recounted the prison horrors during an interaction with media, organised by the Telangana State Union of Working Journalists (TUWJ) on Friday.

“Prison is a microcosm of the external world, where all the societal evils are even more pronounced than outside,” he said during his first-ever media interaction after his release.

“Caste-based discrimination is rampant in prison, and works are assigned based on the caste of inmates. In fact, assignment of jobs based on caste is mentioned in the jail manual too,” Prof. Saibaba said.

The amended Prisons Act 1894 allows ‘mild bodily torture’ as a means to control and discipline prisoners. While there is no way one can protest against such a system except through a hunger strike, even that would yield no result unless amplified by voices outside the prison.

Under the pretext of mild torture, all prisoners are beaten up upon arrival without reason. The only exceptions are gangsters, politicians of repute and ‘Naxal cases’, the academic said.

“When Anil Deshmukh visited me in prison as Home Minister in Congress and NCP coalition, I requested him for better conditions for prisoners. But he sought to know what I wanted for myself. Later, he was jailed, and experienced the conditions first hand,” Prof. Saibaba said.

Similar experiences were shared by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and businessman Naresh Goyal too, and yet there is no change in the conditions.