By IANS,
New Delhi: Authorities in the capital’s Tihar Jail provide poor living conditions to inmates, take arbitrary decisions and are biased towards high-profile prisoners, said a study report here Thursday and urged the Delhi High Court to step in.
‘Beyond the Prison Gates: A Report on Living Conditions in Tihar Jail’ was released by civil liberties organisation Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) here.
The report that lambasts the jail authorities and highlights its shoddy functioning was prepared by PUDR after talking to friends and relatives of the inmates and from data on Tihar’s website.
“Inmates, as per the prison manual, are allowed to have two interviews per week and each interview has three visits. But since March 2011, they are allowing only one visitor per under-trial and three per convict,” PUDR member Moushumi Basu told IANS.
“Further, every prisoner now has to submit a list of around eight people whom he would be meeting. This means no other person can meet him,” added Basu.
Unnecessary restrictions have been placed on the kinds of articles that can be carried by the visitors. Till last year, bananas and apples were being allowed in the jail but suddenly these were banned without citing any reason, she said.
“The move to place restrictions on certain items does not mean that they will not be made available. Rather, prisoners are now free to purchase these as per their requirements,” Basu said.
“There is a growing move within Tihar to privatise the sale of food and other items within the jail. Such restrictions reflect the highly arbitrary and unresponsive character of the jail authorities,” she added.
According to the report, while the high-profile inmates get the comforts of fans and televisions, others are subjected to violence by cliques of prisoners who are given the task of maintaining discipline within the cells.
“Figures related to deaths in Tihar show a significant increase from 28 deaths in 2000-01 to 33 deaths in 2007-08,” said Basu. “The Delhi High Court should take suo motu action on this report.”