Crime victim to get Rs 1 lakh compensation from prisoner's

The Madhya Pradesh government will give an enhanced compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a victim of crime by deducting the sum from wages of the prisoner who committed the offence, state prisons minister Antar Singh Arya has said.

Till now, under a state government scheme, Rs 25,000 is given to the victim of a crime by deducting the amount from wages of the prisoner who committed the wrong-doing.

But from April 1 this year, the victims will get an enhanced amount of Rs 1 lakh, an official of the state Public Relations (PR) department said today.

The minister made the announcement to this effect after inspecting the Bhopal Central Jail yesterday, he said.

The prisoners serving sentences of 10 years or more would be covered under the new rule, state Director General (DG), Prisons, Sanjay Choudhary told PTI.

"Under the state government scheme, so far a prisoner had to part with half of his wages that he earned by doing various tasks in jail. Now, the prisoner has to pay Rs 1 lakh to the victim who suffered at his hands," he said.

The state government is also planning to bring prisoners serving seven-year sentence under the ambit of this scheme, to provide compensation to victims, the DG said.

Meanwhile, the minister said the government would also consider revising the wages given to prisoners for doing various tasks.

"At present, a skilled prisoner gets Rs 110 per task whereas the unskilled prisoner gets Rs 62 for the same," Bhopal Jail Superintendent Dinesh Nargava said.

The minister inspected various wards of the jail, including the "anda cells" (the egg-shaped cells) being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 crore. The cells are completely impregnable for keeping the hardcore criminals, the PR department official said.

Arya also inspected the jail's layered security walls and directed to complete the razor-wire fencing on it at the earliest, he said.

Notably, eight activists of the banned outfit, Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), had escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail in October 2016 following which various measures were undertaken by the jail administration to strengthen the prison's security.

Arya also announced an immunity of one month from the total sentence to those prisoners whose conduct was found to be good.

He also assured to consider an early release of the prisoners aged 65 or above, the PR official said.