43 prisoners from Muzaffarnagar district jail released on parole: Official

Forty-three prisoners were on Monday released from the Muzaffarnagar district jail on parole in a bid to decongest the jail and enure that the crowded prion does not turn into a breeding ground for the spread of coronavirus infection.

The jail inmates were released on eight-week parole on the recommendation of a prison committee, said Muzaffarnagar Jail Superintendent A K Saxena.

He said the prison committee had made its recommendation in accordance with the Allahabad High Court's direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to decongest overcrowded prisons to stem the coronavirus spread.

A total of 2,272 prisoners are lodged in the district jail, which houses prisoners from the adjacent Shamli district, which has no jail.

The prisoners were released a day after a 70-year-old woman serving life term in the district jail here died of heart failure on Sunday.

The woman had died a day after another prisoner had died of kidney failure, Saxena had said on Sunday.