MEERUT: Over 300 jail inmates in Uttar Pradesh have not been visited by their family members in the past five years.As per data accessed by TOI, the state has 75 jails, including two sub-jails. Around 30 jails have over 300 undertrial and convicted prisoners who havent been visited by their kin. The study was part of a routine scanning leading to the revelation of one such undertrial prisoner, Jeetu Kispota, a 45-year-old resident of Mandar village in Ranchi, in Meerut district jail.The prison officials communicated with police in Jharkhand and informed Kispotas family, who werent even aware of his presence in Meerut. Kispota has been booked in a murder case and has been serving jail time since 2018.A senior jail official, on condition of anonymity, told TOI, "All jails in UP have approximately 1,05,000 prisoners, of whom around 26,000 are convicted while rest are undertrials."Director general of prisons in UP, Satya Narain Sabat, told TOI, "As of now, we dont have institutional data, but weve been attending to such inmates individually. There could be a few such cases, but not many. However, even one such case is equally important amid lakhs of inmates."Were sorting prisoners under different categories, and in the e-prisoner portal, we can use the e-mulakaat module to identify such inmates. For now, its hard to comment on who, when, and why someone hasnt met with his family," he added.Sabat further said, Under district legal aid, we used to provide legal assistance to those who had no visitors in a long time. Were compiling figures of such prisoners, which will take a little time.Moreover, the central Jail in Agra tops the charts with over 100 such cases, followed by Varanasi (over 70) and Bareilly (over 50).

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