Cooch Behar, Nov. 19: Caught on the wrong foot after Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association chief, Bangshi Badan Barman and 55 members of the outfit boycotted dinner last night and decided to go on an indefinite hunger-strike to claim the status of political prisoners, the jail authorities promised that they would look into the demand.

The jail authorities visited the residence of Barman’s lawyer, Shiben Roy, this morning and it was through his mediation that the prisoners decided not to sit on the hunger-strike.

“It is a fact that 56 prisoners implicated in the September 20, 2005 incident had boycotted their dinner last evening, saying none of them was allowed to meet their relatives who had come to meet them in the jail and had decided to sit on an indefinite hunger-strike from this morning. However, they changed the decision after the jail authorities had said they would be treated as political prisoners,” Roy said.

He added that the jail superintendent had paid him a visit at home this morning and requested him to take up the matter with Bangshi.

“I assured him that if the jail authorities would allow the 56 men to meet their relatives and not be treated as ordinary prisoners, they would not sit on hunger-strike,” Roy said. He added that the court had accorded political prisoner status for all of them, but the jail authorities had not been complying with the direction.

The jail authorities, however, refused comment on the development. Sources said the jail superintendent was in his quarters every time a call was made to the office landline.

All 56 men are put behind bars in connection with the incident in 2005 when an indefinite hunger-strike here turned violent and an additional police superintendent and two policemen were beaten to death by a mob and two association supporters had died in police firing.

Barman had surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate on May 25, 2006. Roy said the court had accorded them political prisoner status on June 30, 2006.

Sources in the jail said the inmates’ visitors had to write their names in a register before the prisoners were brought to the gate to speak to them. They said there was no fixed time limit for the meetings and they lasted between five to 10 minutes depending upon the number of visitors. The visiting hours are between 10am and 2pm daily.