Amid coronavirus fear, the Dhubri district administration has turned the Dhubri Girls’ College building into a designated jail to keep all the prisoners who will be forwarded by the court for judicial custody.
The Dhubri Girls College building will be used to keep prisoners for the second time since 2019.
Earlier in July 2019, the college building was converted into a designated jail when the Dhubri district jail was submerged by flood waters.
The superintendent of Dhubri District Jail, D Patgiri said, “The health of the original prisoners as well as the staff of the jail is our top priority.”
“In a bid to contain the possible spread of coronavirus to other persons, the district administration has decided to create this designated jail for the new prisoners,” said Patgiri.
“After detection of two Covid19 positive cases among the prisoners of two jails in Assam, this step has been taken as a preventive measure. We can’t take the health risk of the original prisoners,” said Patgiri.
Trinayan Bhuyan, deputy superintendent of police (headquarters), Dhubri said, “From now on, new forwarded persons would be kept in the designated jail for 14 days and their swab tests will be taken.”
“They will be transferred to the main jail only after getting the medical clearance from the competent authority,” Bhuyan added.
“There is lack of space in the main jail. Besides, last year’s flood havoc is still in our minds which forced us to shift over 400 prisoners into the designated jail from the original jail during night hours,” the police official said.
“So amid coronavirus fear, we can’t take any more risk at this stage,” he added.
As many as 312 prisoners, including four women and few foreign nationals, are now lodged in the original jail, informed the Dhubri district jail official.