Court raps Tihar authorities on treating of undertrials
The Delhi high court had recently said that alleged attacks on several undertrials were very disturbing.
New Delhi: Jail authorities are “custodians” of the undertrials on behalf of the judiciary and are supposed to give them proper medical care, treatment, and food, a Delhi court has observed while coming down on Tihar Jail officials for not complying with earlier directions.
The court, which was dealing with applications filed by some inmates who sought necessary treatment and food in the prison, said that Tihar Jail authorities appeared to be “totally negligent towards the treatment and condition of the undertrial prisoners.”
The observations by additional sessions judge Ajay Pandey came in the wake of the ongoing debate over safety and security of the inmates of the Central Jail. The Delhi high court had recently said that alleged attacks on several undertrials were “very disturbing.”
The high court had formed a panel to probe the alleged brutalities inside the jail. This issue was also highlighted when a British court had recently refused to extradite alleged bookie Sanjeev Kumar Chawla, a key accused in the cricket match-fixing scandal involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, citing lack of medical provision, risk of being subjected to torture and violence either from other inmates or prison staff in Tihar Jail.
In its order, the trial court also noted that a number of directions passed by it in a separate case earlier were not followed by the jail authorities. It directed the concerned jail superintendent to appear in person before it along with a status report and to also explain as to why action should not be initiated against him for defying its earlier order.