By IANS
New Delhi : Over 600 prisoners held for minor offences have been freed from the Tihar Central Jail following a Delhi High Court order in the wake of the deaths of six inmates due to overcrowding, an official said Tuesday.
"We have released 627 inmates, including four women, after studying the court directions," said prison spokesman Sunil Gupta.
According to Gupta, the release took place Monday night after they furnished a personal bond of Rs.2,000 each.
"We are very pleased with the court direction as it would really help in decongesting the overcrowded prisons," the officials said. "It's a great relief, now we can focus more on other inmates."
The Tihar Jail, located in west Delhi, has over 13,000 inmates against the approved capacity of 6,250.
The Delhi High Court Monday directed the release of 600 inmates after going through a report of a three-member committee appointed by it to probe the death of prisoners during peak of summer.
Six prisoners and a jail warden have died over a period of seven days beginning June 6.
The jail authorities instituted a magisterial probe into the deaths while maintaining that they all died of natural causes, including heat stroke.
The committee said in its report to the court that the recent deaths occurred due to overcrowding and lack of proper amenities, including scarcity of drinking water.
While reprimanding the jail authorities for their failure to provide various civic amenities in jail, the court said fans and coolers should have been fixed in the jails before the onset of summer.