The Tihar jail authorities have failed to ensure the safety of inmates as incidents of violence, in the form of attacks on individuals and gang wars, have been increasing, said the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) on October 10.
The civil society group has also highlighted the specific targetting of Kashmiri Muslims, who are often singled out by other prisoners as ‘terrorists’, inside Tihar.
The most recent severe attack on Kashmiri Muslim undertrials took place on September 13, when Mohammed Shafi and Javaid Ahmed were assaulted by members of two warring gangs, said a PUDR statement.
But it was only in the first week of October that the incident came to light, after some newspapers reported it along with the DIG’s statement acknowledging that the victims were not party to the gang war.
Former inmate Mohammad Rafiq Shah, who was acquitted in 2017 after spending 12 years in Tihar, publicly stated Kashmiri Muslims are physically tortured and humiliated, not only by other inmates but also by the jail staff.
In 2015, the PUDR had raised the issue of the jail staff assaulting Kashmiri prisoner Dr. Wasim Akram Malik, along with two other Muslims. Malik was left paralysed.
And it’s not just Kashmiri Muslim men who face the ordeal, the PUDR said, citing the 2007 complaint of Kashmiri Muslim woman Zamrooda Habib to the Human Rights Commission about the victimisation of these prisoners.
The PUDR statement also brought up the case of Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah, who appealed to Delhi High Court in October 2017 to shift him to a high-risk prison from Tihar. Shah had been receiving death threats from other inmates and medical negligence from the jail authorities.
But the PUDR made it clear that the situation was equally bad for other inmates too.
In March this year, 17 inmates were injured in a gang war, where each side attacked the other with sharp-edged weapons.
In fact, several incidents of near fatal injuries to Tihar inmates in violent clashes have been reported over the past few years, besides specific incidents of killings while in custody.
In January 2016, an inmate was beaten to death by his fellows in the jail van while being taken to the jail. In August 2015, four prisoners brutally killed their cellmate with iron bars broken out from a window.
Squarely blaming the jail administration for allowing such violence “whether through negligence, disdain or prejudice”, the PUDR said the violence inside Tihar threatened and violated the Right to Life of prisoners.
“The right to life enshrined in the Constitution does not cease to be fundamental behind the closed doors of prison,” the PUDR said.
“Being the custodians, it is the responsibility of the jail authorities to ensure a life of dignity and security to the prison inmates and protect them from any form of violence whether in the hands of jail staff or inmates.”
Indian jails are already plagued by a plethora of other problems, such as overcrowding, resource crunch, lack of basic amenities and poor medical aid.
“Given the dismal conditions, the minimum that is expected from the jail authorities is to guarantee the right to life and freedom from torture to jail inmates,” the statement said.
The PUDR statement urged the Delhi Government as well as the Tihar jail authorities to take note of the deteriorating jail conditions and take immediate steps to ensure safety of the prisoners.
