The prison is being renovated to transform it into a suitable lodging for "jail tourists."
The Haldwani administration in Uttarakhand has come up with a unique initiative to offer travel enthusiasts who want to experience what it's like to be imprisoned. They said this is also meant for those visitors who wish to serve time to remove a problematic astrological alignment from their horoscope.
And in order to accomplish this, the jail administration in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, has thought of a unique way to assist individuals in avoiding "bad karma" for a little price of Rs 500 per night spent in jail.
An area of the former prison is currently being renovated to provide lodging for "tourists" seeking a true "jail experience."
Not just tourists, but also those whose astrologers have counseled them to serve time in jail in order to avoid "Bandhan Yog" in horoscopes that predict imprisonment.
According to a report by The Times of India, the Haldwani prison was built in 1903, and a portion of it, comprising the old armoury with six staff quarters, which has remained abandoned, is currently being used to receive "jail guests".
"The jail frequently received "orders" from senior officials to allow "recommended persons" to spend a few hours in the jail barracks. These "tourist inmates" are given prison uniforms and food made in the jail kitchen", Satish Sukhija, the prison's deputy jail superintendent told TOI.
"All such cases are mainly of people whose astrologers predict that a jail term is inevitable as per the planetary positions in their horoscope. We have an abandoned portion inside the prison that can be developed as a dummy jail to accommodate such ‘inmates' for a night for a nominal fee of Rs 500," the jail official said.
A Haldwani-based astrologer, Mrityunjay Ojha, said, "When three celestial bodies, including Saturn and Mars, are placed in an unfavourable position in one's horoscope or birth chart, it becomes an equation that predicts the person may have to undergo imprisonment. In such a situation, we usually advise the subject to spend a night in jail and have their meals provided by inmates so as to bypass the bad effects of planetary positions."
"I had moved a proposal regarding the matter earlier too, to the inspector-general of prisons. He not only appreciated it but even asked me to send him a detailed project report," Sukhija told TOI.