Death of gangster Ankit Gujjar: Ensuring safety & security of witnesses, prison authorities tell HC

New Delhi: The prison authority Monday told the Delhi High Court that directions have been passed to ensure the safety and security of inmates who are witnesses in the case concerning the alleged murder of inmate Ankit Gujjar in Tihar jail and they are being lodged in an area under the CCTV surveillance.

In its status report, the Director-General of Prisons told Justice Mukta Gupta that the same arrangement will be made for witnesses who are presently out on interim bail.

The judge said that given the authority's stand, no further court orders are called for on the petition by five inmates seeking directions to ensure their safety as well as to restrain the authorities from "threatening/coercing/injuring them with a view to prevent them from seeking justice for themselves and the deceased inmate".

The status report said "two CCTV cameras are installed inside their (two inmates) cell and 24x7 footage of cell is being closely monitored by the officials whenever inmates are locked out from their cell, they are escorted by two Tamil Nadu special police personnel. Two CCTV cameras are installed inside barrack and one camera is installed out the gallery (for the third inmate)."

"As and when (the other two inmates).. surrender before the jail authorities, they shall be lodged after due consideration towards their safety and security," it added.

"The jail staff on duty has been briefed for keeping adequate safety and security of these prisoners and also to keep a close watch on their movements," it further said.