‘Breach of human rights’: Convicted rapist Pravin Kumar claims Corrections is withholding his mail

Convicted rapist Pravin Kumar claims the Department of Corrections is withholding the mail he's sent from Waikeria Prison. Photo / 123rf

The letter-writing efforts of a jailed serial rapist have come under a court’s microscope after he claimed the Department of Corrections withheld his mail 15 times. But one of the recipients was his former female interpreter who allegedly requested that he not contact her.

While Corrections stated the woman does not want to hear from Pravin Kumar, who once posed as a doctor to try to get his victim to change her evidence, the prisoner claims there is no evidence to prove this.

Kumar is serving a sentence of preventive detention after being convicted of attempted abduction in 2004 and of raping and kidnapping two teenagers in 2008; one of whom suffered from schizophrenia.

He had tried to avoid that trial by cutting off his electronic bracelet but it went ahead anyway and a jury found him guilty in his absence.

Kumar appealed but was found guilty at a retrial in 2013.

However, before the retrial and while in prison, he rang one of the victims, posing as a doctor, and unsuccessfully tried to get her to retract or change her evidence. He was then also convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Yesterday, he was in the High Court at Hamilton claiming Corrections has repeatedly withheld his mail.

Some of the letters he claimed were to family and friends, including high-profile former prisoner Arthur Taylor who was recently released after 17 years behind bars, but two were to a former female interpreter he dealt with in Hamilton.

Another was a letter to “the manager” of that woman’s former workplace.

Pravin Kumar has taken his claims to the High Court. Photo / NZME

His lawyer Suzie Abdale told Justice Kiri Tahana that Corrections’ actions were a “breach of his Bill of Rights” as a prisoner to seek, receive and impart information in all forms under Section 69 of the Corrections Act which states prisoners have minimum entitlements.

“So sending and receiving mail is one of those really important rights of a prisoner. Sending and receiving mail attaches very high value for them.”

Kumar, who is serving his time at Waikeria Prison, had already taken the issue to the Office of the Inspectorate and the Ombudsman, and he was now launching his civil suit in the High Court.

Abdale said he wasn’t seeking monetary compensation, but rather just a “declaration that Corrections will not withhold his mail... in breach of his rights”.

Of the 15 letters he’d posted, Kumar only received notifications about four of them being withheld, she said.

He had posted seven between October and December 2020 including four Christmas cards, and a further eight between January and April 2021, and believed none had reached their intended destination.

“Mr Kumar is not happy with the way that his mail is being treated.”

Abdale believed one of the cards was sent to the interpreter when she was in hospital with Covid-19, but there was no evidence she had received it.

When quizzed by Justice Tahana about why he was writing to the woman and whether he knew her, Kumar said he knew “of the girl” but hadn’t met her before.

He said the interpreter used to work for the Hamilton company where he sent his letter addressed to the manager. A friend told him she didn’t work there anymore and had moved to Wellington so he sent a letter to her new employment.

“Even that got returned to me,” he said.

In an affidavit, a manager for Corrections said only two letters had been withheld, as there was a request for “no contact” on the file from that woman, and Kumar had been informed of those.

Corrections claimed Kumar had tried to use a third party by addressing one of the letters to the manager to contact the woman - which was one of the two letters withheld, the other being sent directly to the woman.

When Kumar gave evidence he could not recall what he wrote to any of the recipients but said he kept a calendar detailing the date and name of the person he posted mail to.

He took issue with Corrections’ claim his former interpreter did not want him to contact her.

“There’s no evidence that the woman had made or complained to the prison that ‘I do not want to receive any letters from Mr Kumar’,” Kumar said.

Crown prosecutor Usha Keller asked for Kumar’s complaint to be dismissed. Justice Tahana reserved her decision.

It’s not the first time Kumar’s communication with people outside of the prison has come under the spotlight.

He was once caught running a complex scheme in which he would call his mother and have her divert his calls to phone numbers not approved by the prison phone system.

That was how he managed to contact his victim when he posed as a doctor.