PUNE, 30 May 2005 — The central jail in Pune — Yerawada Prison — is once again the spotlight.
The jail which housed top Indian freedom fighters during the British Raj, is in news because one of the current inmates is related to a great freedom fighter, though of a different country.
Bernard Chapanga is a nephew of the renowned South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. Bernard, a senior journalist with a South African newspaper and a news channel, is in jail because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
After coming to Bombay in 1998, he joined his South African friends, who were staying at a hotel. His friends reportedly were on drugs, while some were also pushing drugs.
As luck would have it, Chapanga was caught in the police raid that took place the day after he joined his friends and was found culpable of abusing and possessing drugs and was sentenced to 15 years rigorous imprisonment under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), Act 1985.
Chapanga said he changed his name from Mandela to Chapanga to avoid any embarrassment to his famous uncle.
He also did not want to use the Mandela name to pressure the Indian government into releasing him.
He told a Human Rights delegation that visited him in the prison that neither he nor his uncle would like to exert any pressure for his release.
Chapanga said no relatives or friends visited him in jail and the only channel of communication was with his aunt Winnie Mandela, who regularly corresponds with him through letters.
Jail officials are happy with Chapanga’s behavior. They said it was only when letters from Winnie Mandela began arriving, that we knew of his Mandela connection.
Chapanga works in the jail library, distributes and read newspapers to the jail inmates and teaches them English and reads a lot.
Recently Chapanga appeared for the Gandhi Studies exam conducted by the jail authorities to inculcate moral values.
