Left in cold without warm clothes, jailed activists seek basic facilities
New Delhi: Noting the flurry of allegations raised by several students and activists placed under judicial custody in connection with their alleged role in purportedly planning and instigating the north-east Delhi riots, regarding the "abysmal living conditions" inside jail, a Delhi court on Tuesday directed the DG (Prisons) to depute an official to look into the grievances failing which the judge said he would himself go for a physical inspection.
During the hearing of the "main conspiracy" case before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, seven out of the 15 accused said they have not been given warm clothes, though it is permitted under the prison rules, and the prison authorities said they need a court order for it.
Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for Gulfisha Khatoon, said an application for supply of winter clothes had to be filed since the jail authorities said they won't permit it unless there was court's direction to this. When the court allowed the application, advocate Adit Pujari, appearing for JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, requested the order to be extended for all the accused as everyone was facing the same problem.
Another accused Meeran Haider said he was down with fever due to the cold without winter clothes, but he has been unable to put forward his grievances to the prison authorities.
To this, ASJ Rawat asked that "I don't understand why the inmates have to raise issues for such basic things"?
"This has to end. DG (Prisons) is directed to take stalk of the situation, to order someone, who can take a call, to look into the grievances. If things do not improve, I would go for a physical inspection myself. And the lawyers may accompany me too," ASJ Rawat said.
Former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, while seeking an interim bail of two months, said that eight of her fellow inmates have been quarantined, out of which five have been hospitalised making it "psychologically traumatising" for her as "she isn't allowed to step out outside her cell". Her counsel also alleged that Jahan hasn't been provided slippers inside the jail. Accused Athar Khan also claimed that eight of his fellow inmates have been quarantined, out of which two have been hospitalised.
Similarly, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha alleged that "he has been facing discrimination inside jail" as he hasn't even "been provided copies of his recently rejected bail application". "When I raised this issue, jail officials told me that this is not the place to show your activism," he claimed.
Tanha also alleged that he hasn't been provided the facility of meeting his family through video-conferencing by jail authorities. His counsel, Sowjhanya Shankaran, told the court that she has been forced to share the chargesheet on her phone with her client through video conferencing twice a week for half-an-hour due to which she has "only been able to share 30 pages in 30 days" while requesting the judge to provide Tanha with a softcopy of the same.
Gulfisha also claimed that she has "written several letters to high authorities including Chief Justice of High Court but jail authorities have not forwarded them yet".
Taking note of these claims, ASJ Rawat observed that inmates shouldn't be made to "run from pillar to post" in order to solve these basic grievances, the redressal for which has been laid out in the prison manual.
"I am passing a general order to the DG (Prisons) to look into these allegations raised by the accused persons and if the same isn't solved within the next date of hearing then I will myself go for a physical inspection of the jail premises," ASJ Rawat said.
Meanwhile, on the issue of handing out physical copies of the chargesheets to all the 15 accused, the prosecution said that it has challenged the court's October 21 order, directing the former to provide hardcopy of the same to the accused persons, in the High Court. The matter will now be heard on
November 23.
