Diu: ‘Loneliness is overrated’ might not be a thought in 30-year-old Deepak Kanji’s head, the only inmate of a 472-year-old Portuguese fort-turned-jail in Diu.
The jail, which can house 20 inmates, will be handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) soon.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Kanji spends his days in a 50 square metre room which has a TV, water container and a blanket. The guards on duty are his only companions. They too, join him at 4 pm for 2 hours. He spends his time reading Gujarati newspapers and magazines. He also enquires about the status of his case every day from the assistant jailer.
The jail now has only 5 guards and one assistant jailer.
Kanji’s food is outsourced from a nearby restaurant.
The ASI wanted to convert the fort into tourist destination in 2013 and hence all the other inmates were transferred to a prison in Gujarat.
Kanji was arrested in December last year for allegedly trying to poison his wife. He is being kept here as it is convenient for the hearings to be held at the Diu sessions court. He will be transferred to Amreli in Gujarat if convicted.
The fort stands as a reminder of Portuguese rule over Diu, which had remained a Portuguese colony from 1537 to 1961. The jail where Deepak Kanji is housed is one of the oldest functioning prisons of India.
Diu’s collector Hemant Kumar has been striving hard for a ‘crime-free’ status for the island and is eagerly awaiting Kanji’s exit from the prison.
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