India News | Set Up Police Pickets Outside Tihar Jail to Check Menace of Contraband Throwing into Prison:SC

New Delhi, Mar 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that police pickets of Delhi police be set up around the outer wall of Tihar Jail to check the "menace" of throwing contrabands into the prison premises within two weeks.

The top court said that efforts should be made for the removal of mobile towers from the vicinity of Tihar Jail and the installation of mobile signal jammers in the prison premises in coordination with the Department of Telecommunication.

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A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and MR Shah perused an affidavit filed by Director General (Prison) and directed that all concerned authorities act upon and immediately implement the recommendations made by the Delhi Commissioner of Police Rakesh Asthana and prioritize the proposals which can be implemented in a shorter time and those which may take longer time.

“The proposed setting up of police pickets outside the jail premises to control the menace of contraband articles being thrown from outside can be effectively implemented in the immediate short term for which necessary action be taken by the concerned authorities within a period of two weeks”, the bench said.

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It said, “The proposal for ensuring that there are no cell phone towers in the immediate vicinity of Tihar Jail and for providing a jamming solution will have to be implemented in close coordination with the Department of Telecommunication. Action to implement the recommendation must begin immediately”.

The bench also directed the Chief Secretary of the Delhi government to ensure that whatever amendments are required to be undertaken to strengthen the staff recruitment rules for Tihar jail are taken up on or before April 30.

It noted that suspension orders have been issued against 28 non-gazetted staff, two gazetted staff, and services of two contractual employees have been terminated as they were complicit in wrongdoings by ex-Unitech promoters Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra.

The bench said that a status report be filed on or before April 13 on the steps taken to enhance prison security as per the recommendation made by Asthana and listed the matter for further hearing on April 20 for monitoring compliance with the court's direction.

At the outset, advocate Gautam Narayan, appearing for the Delhi government said that DG (Prison) has filed an affidavit pursuant to the January 27 order of the top court and they have broadly categorised the steps to be taken in five categories.

He said that these steps are ramping of prison security including surveillance, installation of body scanners, CCTV and mobile signal jammers, amendment of prison staff recruitment rules, ramping of jail infrastructure including school and medical facilities, reducing the overcrowding of jails by the construction of a new jail at Narela here, steps to be taken for creating staff welfare funds for jail inmates and prison staff.

Narayan said that a proposal has been sent to Delhi Development Authority for the allotment of a 40-acre plot for the construction of a new jail at Narela to reduce overcrowding in prison.

He said that at present there are 10 jails in Tihar prison which have around 18,000 inmates and Narela jail will be number 11.

The bench asked Narayan as to why the Delhi government indicated a timeline of three months for implementing these proposals to which he said that this has been put at a higher end to ensure that they don't have to come back before the court for an extension of time.

He said recruitment rules for the appointment of deputy jail superintendent and superintendent and deployment of personnel from central paramilitary forces on deputation will be done.

The counsel added that they have also written to paramilitary central forces for sniffer dogs which would be used in patrolling in the jail to deal with contrabands thrown inside the walls.

He added that a proposal has also been sent to the Delhi government for the upgradation of the jail dispensary both in manpower and equipment and deployment of teachers to increase literacy among the inmates.

“A proposal for deployment of teachers has been approved and 48 teachers will be deputed in jail for educating the inmates and wards of the prison staffs”, he said.

Narayan said that they will be filing a detailed affidavit to indicate the compliance of the steps undertaken.

On January 27, the top court had said that the “passing of the buck” between the Centre, DG Prison, and Delhi government has to be dealt with by “effective coordination” and directed that a meeting be held within a week on taking some concrete decisions for implementing Delhi Police Commissioner's report on Tihar jail reforms.

It had told the Centre that only paperwork is no solution and corrective measures are to be taken on the ground so that there is no repetition of the incident like collusion of Tihar Jail officials with the Chandra brothers.

The Enforcement Directorate had made a startling revelation in November last year that it had unearthed a “secret underground office” here which was being operated by erstwhile Unitech founder Ramesh Chandra and visited by his sons Sanjay and Ajay when on parole or bail.

Both Sanjay and Ajay, in jail since August 2017, are accused of allegedly siphoning home buyers' money.

On November 10 last year, the top court had said that it is a “sorry state of affairs” in Tihar Jail which has become a den of criminals and murders are happening there and had directed the Home Ministry to take immediate steps on prison reforms and enhance management.

(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)