Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Nov 2: The newly built district sub-jail at Anjar village within Kodibettu gram panchayat near here, was inaugurated on Sunday November 1.  District and sessions judge, Chengappa, inaugurated the sub-jail. MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary, district superintendent of police, Pravin Madhukar Pawar, deputy superintendent of police, Jayant Shetty, zilla panchayat chief executive officer, Prasanna Kumar, other judges of the court etc., were present.

The inmates of the present congested, dilapidated sub-jail, which is located behind the taluk office here, will be shortly shifted to the new premises. The new jail has come up in 15 acres of land, at a cost of Rs 1.86 crore, having a space of 10,878 sq ft spread over the ground floor and 5,100 sq ft in the first floor. The new jail can accommodate a total of about 120 inmates in barracks, including the facility of separate cells for women prisoners and individual cells for hardcore criminals.

However, out of the required staff strength of 50, only four are presently working in the sub-jail. It is expected that the government will post some more, within the next two to three weeks.

Normally, the under-trial inmates are kept in this jail. Once they are sentenced, they are shifted to the central jails located in either Mysore or Belgaum. In rare cases, the people can be kept here for up to three months, even after they are sentenced.

At present, a total of 70 under-trial prisoners are kept in the old sub-jail, even though the eight cells in the sub-jail can accommodate only about 32 people in normal course. The new sub-jail has come as a relief for the inmates of the jail. District deputy commissioner, Hemalata, said that the jail will be shifted in about a month.