Mumbai: In a detailed complaint to the police and the court, human rights defenders Surendra Gadling and Sagar Gorkhe, both arrested for their alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case, have exposed the ongoing corruption in the functioning of the canteen facility inside Taloja Central Prison on the outskirts of Mumbai.
They have claimed in their complaint that basic essential food items such as vegetable pakodas (fritters) and egg bhurji are sold at exorbitant prices of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000.
Gadling, a Nagpur-based human rights lawyer who has spent over 75 months in incarceration, has provided an elaborate account of how an average prisoner is denied access to the prison canteen system, and how their share of good food is given away to “VIP prisoners” who are willing to pay exorbitant prices for those goods. In July, Gorkhe also raised the issue of corruption in prison, but the prisons department did not act on his complaint.
Earlier this month, Gadling sent his complaint letters to the prison authorities and the local Panvel police station, under whose jurisdiction Taloja Prison falls, naming senior jailor Sunil Patil as the person behind the rampant corruption. In his letter, Gadling states that a kilo of mutton is sold at an inconceivable price of Rs. 8,000. Similarly, a kilo of fried chicken costs as much as Rs. 2,000, and a mutton curry is charged at Rs. 7,000.
According to Gadling, this money does not go to the prisons department but to “a parallel system run by Patil and his men” and it directly violates incarcerated persons’ right to food.
A decade ago, the home ministry came up with “the Model Prison Manual” which prescribed a calorie intake of between 2,320 kcal and 2,730 kcal per day for male prisoners, and 1,900 kcal to 2,830 kcal per day for women prisoners.
Every incarcerated person is entitled to adequate and nutritious food while in jail. Every state’s prison manual has at least one chapter dedicated to food, outlining the type, frequency, and quantity of meals that incarcerated individuals are entitled to receive.
These meals must be nutritious and meet the nutritional needs of the inmates. It is the state’s responsibility to ensure that those in its custody are fed adequately and provided with proper nutrition. However, the ground reality is very different.
Prisoners often complain that the quality of food is inedible, and they depend on the canteen services. Several petitions have been filed both at the Supreme Court and high courts. Gadling says that the food served to them at Taloja prisons is “not fit for human standards, tasteless, undercooked, and even harmful to health.”
The canteens inside prisons are meant to be “no-profit and no-loss” enterprises. Prisoners are given a window of a few days to place orders for items they would like to eat or use while in jail. These products mostly include dry snacks, soaps, shampoos, poultry items, and meat preparations. These items are bought through money orders that prisoners’ families send in every month. While a few prisoners receive these money orders, many cannot afford them and depend on the benevolence of other prisoners.
In his letter, Gadling claims that every prisoner, through their prisoner’s personal cash (PPC) account, is able to access special food items up to Rs. 10,000. He alleges that while prisoners can buy goods worth Rs. 6,000, the remaining amount is pocketed by Patil.
Gadling further explains how the system works. Prisoners, he says, are divided into two categories: the poor or ordinary prisoners and the wealthy and VIP prisoners. When a prisoner places an order for items they need, it is supposed to be mentioned in the prison’s “Work Order,” which Gadling says is handled by Patil.
Gadling and Gorkhe have alleged that the share belonging to ordinary prisoners is diverted every month to the VIP ones.
“The ration for special food items for the wealthy VIP prisoners is taken from the ration for other prisoners, which is separated into good quality and bad quality food,” they write in their complaints. The good quality food is then given to the VIP prisoners, while the substandard food is distributed among the rest.
Gadling’s son, Sumit Gadling, who is also a lawyer, said the special food item made available is a joke. “If you ask for a half a kilo of chicken, the prisons authority will give you 300 gms of watery gravy and two bony pieces of chicken. This is not because they are not procuring proper items but because the fleshy pieces are diverted to the VIP prisoners,” he explained.
According to data updated on the Maharashtra Prisons website (from May this year), in a prison space meant for 2,124 prisoners, as many as 2,898 persons were lodged in Taloja Prison. Most of these prisoners belong to impoverished backgrounds with little to no purchasing capacity, while a few belong to the affluent and influential category.
For example, Ganpat Gaikwad, a BJP MLA from Kalyan who was arrested for shooting at a business and political rival inside a police station, is also lodged at Taloja. Several other white-collar crimes accused and many gang lords are also housed there.
Despite several attempts, The Wire was unable to get through to Taloja jail officials. Deputy Inspector of Prisons (South Division), Yogesh Desai, told Hindustan Times that the prisons department would “inquire into the allegations.”
When Gadling and Gorkhe began to speak up, they claim they were intimidated by jail officials. Gadling, in a separate letter, has also accused Patil of sending out a fake letter in his name. In this letter, Gadling narrates how the names of other jail officials are mentioned.
“This letter spells my name wrong and also has my fake signature,” he claims. Interestingly, this letter doesn’t mention Patil’s name but does include a few other officials. Gadling has claimed that this was done intentionally to shift attention away from Patil.
This alleged letter also mentions the names of “VIP prisoners” like Gaikwad. Gadling says these names were intentionally mentioned only to create a rift among prisoners and to put his life, and that of Gorkhe and other outspoken prisoners, in danger.
As both the state prisons and police departments continue to drag their feet on the allegations, the human rights defenders have decided to move the Bombay High Court. Sumit Gadling told The Wire that they are in the process of approaching the High Court. “The letter raises a pertinent issue that affects not only the lives of these two complainants but also thousands of prisoners lodged here,” Sumit said.
This article was corrected to reflect what Ganpat Gaikwad was convicted for.
