New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) The Delhi Prisons Department will write to the AAP government, seeking an amendment to law to be able to shift under-trial prisoners from city's jails to other states, officials said on Thursday.

They said this will allow them to break the nexus among prisoners and also help decongest the jails. The prisons in Delhi presently house 20,558 inmates against a sanctioned capacity of 10,026 inmates.

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The move by the prisons department has also come days after gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was stabbed to death inside Tihar jail by four inmates belonging to a rival gang, raising serious questions on the security inside the prison.

"We are going to write to the government to take up the matter of amending the Transfer of Prisoners Act with competent authority to include under-trial prisoners in it in order to shift them from city jails to other states which will help in breaking their nexus here," a senior prisons department official said.

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The official said there are several inmates who have multiple criminal cases registered against them outside Delhi but they deliberately get themselves arrested in Delhi for petty crimes to get into Tihar Jail.

"After this amendment, we will be able to send criminals to the states where cases have been pending against them and they can be present in a court here virtually. This step will help decongest the jails and also in assisting the working of prison administration," the official said.

Another jail official said they will also write for boosting the paramilitary strength and change their posting every five years.

"The strength of the paramilitary force also needs to be increased. We are going to write to the Delhi government about increasing its strength in prisons. They also need to be transferred every five years so that they do not develop any vested interest here," the official said.

After the Tajpuriya killing on May 2, the prisons department suspended eight Tihar Jail staffers, including three assistant superintendents following an inquiry into their roles in stopping the attack.

Later, the department formed quick response teams (QRTs) to deal with such incidents in future.

In April, Anil Dujana (43) was released from Tihar jail. Within days, he was gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh Police in an encounter in a village in Meerut.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)