Jorhat (Assam), Aug. 19 (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday announced the historic Jorhat Central Jail will be preserved as a heritage site after shifting the prisoners to a new facility.
Visiting the jail premises, Sarma said the state government will preserve the site as a tribute to the country's freedom fighters as part of the celebration of 75th year of India's Independence.
"The state government will preserve the Jorhat Central Jail as a heritage site after shifting the present prison to another place in the district. The government will develop a heritage site in 100 bighas of jail land," he said in an official statement.
During the freedom struggle, prominent freedom fighters including former President Fakaruddin Ali Ahmed, former Chief Ministers Gopinath Bordoloi and Bimala Prasad Chaliha, Amiyo Kumar Das, Bijoy Bhagawati and Kamakhya Tripathi were imprisoned in this jail.
Freedom fighters Beja Bauri and Kamala Miri breathed their last inside this jail. While martyr Kushal Konwar was hanged inside Jorhat jail on June 15, 1943.
Before that Maniram Dutta Baruah, popularly known as Maniram Diwan, a pioneer in tea cultivation in Assam, was hung at Jorhat jail for conspiring against the British in 1858.
Sarma interacted with jail authority as well as a few of the jail inmates and took stock of their grievances.
He also inspected the site inside the jail where freedom fighter Kushal Konwar was hanged and the cell where freedom fighter and social reformer Pitambor Dev Goswami was imprisoned.
"The Chief Minister during the visit offered his tributes to these legendary freedom fighters," the release stated,
The Jorhat Central Jail, formerly known as Jorhat District Jail, was constructed during the British rule in India in 1909 and was opened in 1911.