4 Jail Inmates Sleeping Under Same Mosquito Net: Akhil Gogoi Raises COVID-19 Concerns

Sibsagar, April 1, 2020:

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) Chief Akhil Gogoi, who has been sent to various jails in the state in the wake of his participation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, has called upon the authorities to "decongest" the Assam jail facilities, which he claimed are overcrowded. Gogoi said there is a lot of physical contact among the inmates and as many as 4 people sleep under the same mosquito net. This, Gogoi has hinted, could lead to an outbreak of the coronavirus.

"Under a single mosquito net, 4 people are sleeping", Gogoi said, adding that the facilities are overcrowded and the inmates sleep one atop the other. Jails should be vacated and the prisoners should be let out on parole Gogoi said, calling forth the jail inmates to begin a protest if things continue in the same vein. Gogoi also said that new people are being jailed everyday, and hinted that an outbreak in the Assam jails could happen in the future.

"They are taking me from one jail to another -- from one police station to the next. From December 12 I was kept at the Jorhat CRPF camp. From December 13 I was kept in Jorhat jail. From 16 December, I was taken to Delhi.I was kept in NIA office in Delhi. Then, I was brought again to Assam. I was given to Sivasagar Police custody and then shifted to the Sivasagar jail. Then, a prisoner who had fever, cold arrived and there was a situation of hue and cry in the jail." Gogoi said that a new case is being registered on charges on him pelting stones at the OC.

Meanwhile, the firebrand peasant leader who has been imprisoned since December last, urging the people of Assam to follow the quarantine rules, has raised concerns that the the way the police is beating people for violation is "not right".

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"Under no circumstances should the tea tribe laborers be made to work", Gogoi said, lambasting the Government's decision to exempt tea garden laborers from the lockdown imposed by the Centre, restricting movement and transactions barring the very essential ones.

Gogoi said that the tea gardens are "extremely vulnerable" spots and the laborers should be paid their wages and kept indoors for the 21-day lockdown period. "If anything happens in the tea garden, no one from Assam will survive", Gogoi warned.

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