NEW DELHI: About 40 inmates of the Tihar prison’s high-security ward have filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, alleging that the jail administration was ‘discriminating’ against them when it came to access of facilities inside the jail. The HC has issued a notice to the government and sought its response in the next hearing in January 2019.
Represented by Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Committee president Manjeet Singh GK, the prisoners, a few of whom are Sikhs, are demanding facilities such as access to televisions with a cable connection and radios which are allowed to general prisoners. “The Tihar administration argued in the court that there is no such discrimination inside the prison complex, which is already overcrowded. We asked them to file an affidavit in the court stating the same,” said Harpreet Singh Hora, counsel for the prisoners.
The Tihar complex houses about 16,000 inmates, of which, approximately 230 are kept in the high security ward.“I don’t have any knowledge of any such petition right now, but I can assure you that everything in Tihar prison is followed as per the government’s jail manual,” said Tihar’s Director General Ajay Kashyap.
In their letter to Hora, some of the prisoners cited issues such as limited access to lawyers. Only one meeting is allowed between the lawyer and a high-value detainee — something which the petitioners contended was coming in the way of their legal battle.Similarly, prisoners of the general ward get five calls a week, but it is only two in the case of high security ward inmates, the petitioners said, adding that they are not allowed to meet relatives during festivals, unlike the general prisoners.
But, jail officials claimed these restrictionsare for certain cases only, given the notoriety of these men. That, they asserted, is necessary as these inmates are hardened criminals, they added.