Jail should be correctional institution , says G.N. Saibaba

G.N. Saibaba, who is on three month bail after getting arrested from Delhi University for alleged links with the Naxalites, on Friday asserted that jail should be a correctional institution and not a torture centre, adding that the reason for his illness was the torture he went through.

"How a person feels when he or she loses his freedom and rights, I have experienced that feeling. After coming out of jail I have realised the value of freedom in a person's life. Jail should be a correctional institution and police officer should behave like a correction officer

Everyday people are tortured in the jail. People are beaten, insulted and mercilessly tortured," Saibaba told ANI here.

Saibaba said: "They do a very dangerous and merciless torture on the prisoners. I have fallen ill because I have seen the torture with my eyes. So it is not a jail, it's a torture centre. Sometimes they didn't give me food, my medicines. They used to torture me like this."

However, Saibaba accepted that " they didn't torture me physically."

Saibaba said that he has been in the jail for the past 14 months and the trial has not yet started.

On Tuesday, Bombay High Court granted Saibaba temporary bail for three months to undergo medical treatment for multiple ailments.

G.N. Saibaba was arrested by Maharashtra police last year for alleged Maoist links and jailed in the Nagpur Central Prison. He was subsequently suspended from the University.