1. The families of prisoners held in Taloja Central Prison and Byculla Women's Prison wrote a letter regarding the discontinuation of weekly telephone interviews for family members when physical visits resume. 2. They expressed concern that discontinuing phone calls would cause problems for out-of-town family members who cannot easily travel to Mumbai for physical visits, as well as economically weak and elderly relatives. 3. The letter requested that phone interviews be allowed to continue in a hybrid model, where Mumbai-based relatives could choose a physical or phone visit, to ensure prisoners' right to communicate with family and advocates as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.

1. 18 October 2021
1. Shri Sunil Ramanand,
Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), Maharashtra
2. Shri Dr.Chhering Dorje (IPS)
Spl. Inspector General of Police (Prisons)
Southern Region, Byculla,Mumbai-8
Office: Mirza Ghalib Rd, New Nagpada,
Byculla
Mumbai-400008
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Subject: Regarding Continuing Telephone Interviews for Family Members
Dear Sir,
We, the family members of the undertrial prisoners lodged in Taloja Central Prison & Byculla
Women Prison in the NIA case: RC-01/2020/NIA/MUM, want to bring to your notice that we
have been informed that telephone interviews will be stopped altogether for family members
and that physical visits are starting from next week. We are extremely concerned about this
and hence the undersigned letter.
We have been informed that the weekly calls allowed to the inmates of Taloja and Byculla
prisons will be discontinued when these prisons resume physical mulaqats. We feel that this
can cause many problems to the inmates whose relatives live outside Mumbai. It would be
extremely difficult for outstation family members to travel to Mumbai for the physical
mulaqats.
Similarly, economically weak relatives of many of the inmates will also not be able to afford the
travel to the prisons, which would include the use and hiring of private vehicles.
Older relatives of inmates will also find it extremely difficult to come to Mumbai from distant
places.
Moreover, physical mulaqats are extremely taxing to the relatives as they have to stand in
queue for long in the hot sun and sometimes come repeatedly in order to meet their relatives
lodged in the prisons. This further adds to the problems of people who live far away, are old, or
are economically weak.
Given these issues we would like to point out that there are already many telephones installed
in the jails and a well-maintained system for the purpose of bi-weekly phone interviews. This
should be allowed to continue in hybrid fashion – that is the option should be given to relatives
of the prisoners living in Mumbai to either come for physical family visits or they wish to
continue the telephone interviews.

2. The same liberty should be extended for legal interviews. This is the only way to allow the right
of the prison inmates to communicate with advocates, family and friends, which is a
fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
In fact, Shri Sunil Ramanand (DG Prisons) during a visit to Taloja jail some months ago, on being
petitioned by the Taloja inmates had promised them that phone interviews would continue
even after resumption of physical visits for family members. Also, Shri Ashutosh Kumbhakoni,
Attorney General, had been appraised of the same by Senior Advocate Mihir Desai amicus
curiae in pandemic & prisons petitions pending in Bombay High Court.
We also would like to point out that many other prisons such as Tihar jail and other prisons in
Gujarat and Jharkhand have also continued phone mulaqats in order to mitigate the difficulties
of the inmates and their relatives.
Therefore we urge you to continue with the phone mulaqat system, which has been working
well so far and which would allow the inmates to continue communicating with their relatives
for those whom it will not be possible to travel to Mumbai for the purpose of family mulaqats
with the prisoners in Mumbai jails.
We hope you will look into this matter and resolve this issue at the earliest, so that the inmates
imprisoned in this case as well as other inmates of these two jails in particular and of course all
jails in Maharashtra can resume communication with their family members without any further
delay.
Thank you.
Regards,
****
Vimal Jagtap (Jyoti Jagtap)
Koel Sen (Dr Shoma Sen)
Maisha Bhardwaj (Adv Sudha Bhardwaj)
Dr. Jenny Rowena (Hanny Babu)
Surekha Gorakhe (Sagar Gorkhe)
Pranali Parab (Ramesh Gaichor)
Minal Gadling (Adv Surendra Gadling)
Rama Ambedkar (Dr Anand Teltumbde)
Sahba Hussain (Gautam Navlakha)
Sharad Gaikwad (Sudhir Dhawle)
Monali Raut (Mahesh Raut)
Susan Abraham (Vernon Gonsalves)
Jennifer Coutino (Adv Arun Ferriera)
Roy Wilson (Rona Wilson)

3. CC :
1. Shri Sharad Khatavkar,
DIG Prisons (HQ), 2nd Floor, Old Central Bldg, Pune - 1
2. Hon’ble Chief Justice, Bombay High Court
3. Home Minister, Government of Maharashtra