Radhabai Surve, 49, jailed at Byculla's women cell is one of the 3 lakh undertrials (70 % of all prisoners) who are languishing in various prisons all over the country. She has been in prison for over 5 years now, 4 years more than she would have been had she been convicted of the crime she had allegedly committed. Since she is too poor to afford a lawyer, she is dependent on a state-appointed one, who has made no effort to get her bailed out and keeps seeking adjournments.
Yesterday, Radhabai Surve shared her cell with celebrity prisoner Sheetal Mafatlal, arrested for evading customs duty on jewellery worth Rs. 53 lacs. On learning the reason why the socialite from the troubled Mafatlal family was spending the night in prison, she was shocked. Echoing the sentiments of Haseena Jethmalani and many other scanalized socialites, she asked 'Panaas laakh chi keemat kai aaj? (What is the value of 50 lakhs today?) Its a ridiculously small amount'.
Watching Sheetal sleep on a thin, prickly coil mattress surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes, Sitadevi, 35, recoiled in horror. "She's rich and she's famous. Why is she being treated like the way we poor are?' she asked innocently. "She didn't kill or hurt anybody. Its wrong to harass a respectable lady like her for such a minor offence. At least, they should have put her in clean, air-conditioned room with TV, phone and a fridge. Not in this stinking hell-hole." When this reporter pointed out to her that the law treats everyone equally, she seemed genuinely surprised but after a few moments she started laughing, "I will believe you if even after two years I see her in this room sleeping on this same dirty mattress"
Sitadevi, who worked as a cleaner in a hospital was arrested for stealing a lamp from the hospital store room, an offence if proved carries a maximum punishment of six months. She has already spent over 2 years in prison, as she was unable to afford the bail set at Rs. 1500. Her case comes up every fortnight at the sessions court, but all she receives are date extensions. Every time she is brought to the court, the judge on duty without even looking at her sets a new date for the trial, several weeks ahead. Sitadevi too claims innocence. "Why would I steal a lamp? I don't even have electricity in the shanty where I live with my husband and two children. I accidentally broke the lamp while cleaning the storeroom. Afraid that the cost of lamp will be deducted from my measly salary of Rs.2000, I disposed off the broken remains without informing anyone"
Both the women were excited at the media attention Sheetal Mafatlal was receiving and expressed hoped that once their stories too made front pages of newspapers, their cases will come up for hearing and be quickly disposed off. But when they learnt that they were being interviewed not by a front line newspaper, but by an obscure website which receives just a few hundred hits everyday, they got angry and shooed this reporter away.
