The Maharashtra government on Monday informed the Bombay High Court that, according to the law, no prison in the state practices solitary confinement. However, prisoners convicted of heinous crimes are kept separately.
Public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar informed a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan that individuals convicted of serious offenses, such as bomb blasts, are segregated from other inmates.
The division bench was hearing a petition filed by Himayat Baig, who was convicted in the 2010 Pune blast case. Baig claimed that he has been held in solitary confinement at Nashik Central Prison for the past 12 years and requested to be transferred.
Himayat Baig has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2010 Pune blast case. Public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar informed the court that no prison in Maharashtra practices solitary confinement.
“Currently, we do not follow solitary confinement at all. We only separate convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for serious and heinous offenses, such as blasts, from other convicts,” he stated. Venegaonkar clarified that there is a distinction between solitary confinement and keeping convicts separated from others.
He further explained that under Section 11 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, only a court that has convicted and sentenced the accused has the authority to order solitary confinement for no more than three months.
The bench directed Venegaonkar to file a short affidavit to confirm this and scheduled the next hearing for two weeks later.
Baig was the only person convicted in the February 2010 blast at German Bakery in Pune, which resulted in 17 deaths and 60 injuries. Six others charged in the case, including Yasin Bhatkal, who is alleged to have planted the bomb, remain at large.
