High security jail coming up in J&K's Kathua; to accommodate 600 inmates

Sources said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has allotted over 300 kanals of land to the Prisons Department in February of last year for building the high security prison taking the overall number of jails in Jammu and Kashmir to 14, reports ETV Bharat's Muhammad Zulqarnain Zulfi.

SRINAGAR (JAMMU AND KASHMIR): A high-security jail with space for up to 600 inmates is being built in the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir after the LG Manoj Sinha led UT administration allotted over 300 kanals of land for the project, sources said. Sources told ETV Bharat that the high security jail is being built at Dambra area of Mahanpur in Kathua district.

Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir government had directed for the transfer of more than 300 kanals of land to the Prisons Department in February of last year. Concurrently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Parliament on December 11 that "a new jail only for militants is being built in Jammu and Kashmir at a cost of Rs 105 crore."

An order formalising the transfer of land parcels for the construction of the jail in the Kathua district was issued by the then-Commissioner Secretary of the Revenue Department, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri. "…sanction is hereby accorded to transfer of Shamilat Deh (Mehfooz Kahcharie) land measuring 148 Kanal under Khasra No. 427 min (108 Kanal 01 Marla) and Khasra No. 486 min (39 Kanal 19 Marla) at village Dambra, Tehsil Mahanpur, District Kathua in favour of Prisons Department, J&K for construction of High-Security Prison.

The land shall be used only for the purpose for which the sanction of transfer has been accorded and all other permissions as may be required for its construction be obtained from the Competent Authority," the order read. It further said, "Transfer of State land measuring160 Kanal 04 Marla under Khasra No. 1873 (73 Kanal 02 Marla), Khasra No. 2597/2325 (78 Kanal) and Khasra No. 2598/2325 (09 Kanal 02 Marla) situated at village Dambra, Tehsil Mahanpur, District Kathua as Shamilat Deh (Mehfooz Kacharie) in lieu of the land transferred for High-security prison."

A senior officer posted at the DG Prisons Office in Srinagar said that building a high-security jail to house “traitorous and insurgent offenders was deemed necessary in order to address regional security needs and bolster national security”. “It will likely have the capacity for over 600 inmates. The under construction high-security jail complex in Kathua was personally visited by Home Minister Amit Shah last year," he said.

"He (Home Minister) has made several suggestions, and all those have been incorporated. Dambra is located around 50 kilometres within the hinterland, well out of drone range. Further contributing to the decision to choose Kathua as a safer location was its closeness to the International Border (IB)," the official said, adding "The present Director General of Police, Prisons, Deepak Kumar, and former DGP, Prisons, B Srinivas, had earlier decided to move on with finding land near Jammu's Kot Balwal Jail but later went for Kathua."

There are now 14 jails in operation in J&K, comprising one Special Jail, 10 District Jails, two Central Jails, and one Sub Jail. The department has lodged approximately 5,300 convicts despite having the capacity of only 3,629 inmates. According to official data accessed by ETV Bharat, there are 4,646 undertrials in total, including 154 women and one transgender person, lodged in 14 prisons in Jammu and Kashmir.

The data further said that 38 foreign nationals who are awaiting trial are also detained in different Jammu and Kashmiri prisons. In addition, there are now 1,045 undertrials in prisons in Jammu and Kashmir who have been arrested for murder, 541 for rape, 208 under the Arms Act, 1,504 under the NDPS, and 740 under the UAPA.

According to the age distribution of undertrials, there are 1322 undertrials between the ages of 19 and 25—1273 of them are boys and the remaining 49 are girls.