Lucknow, Nov 15 (IANS): Gangsters lodged in Uttar Pradesh jails will now attend their court hearings through video conferencing.
The step is being viewed as a measure to check interaction of criminals with the "outside world".
Officials have been directed to ensure additional video conferencing facilities in 72 jails and 73 courts across the state. At present, only remand proceedings of criminals are carried out virtually.
With 100 per cent handling of remand and trial of prisoners through video conferencing, incidents of escape of undertrial prisoners would also be curbed.
Director-general (prisons), Anand Kumar, had sought permission from the state government to conduct a virtual trial of gangsters.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stressed on the need for trial of criminals and gangsters from prison itself so that cops do not have to ferry them from prison to court during trial of cases.
This would also help check criminals issuing threats to witnesses and conspiring to carry out crimes with the help of their aides during their appearance in court for trial, emphasised Kumar.
According to Kumar, there are 72 operational jails in the state, out of which 62 are district jails, seven central jails apart from a Nari Bandi Niketan, an Adarsh Jail and a Kishore Sadan. Remand and trial proceedings of undertrial prisoners are held in 73 courts of the state.
All jails and courts have one room each to carry out remand proceedings through video conferencing. But due to a large number of prisoners, the entire day is spent hearing remand cases.
Therefore, a letter was written to the government, seeking construction of an additional video conferencing room in all jails and courts across the state for carrying out trials of criminals through video conferencing, stated Kumar.
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.