Common links crop up in 2 Tihar deaths
NEW DELHI: On May 14, 2021, prisoner Shrikant Rama Swami died in Delhi’s Tihar jail after allegedly getting into a fight with other inmates. He was to be released on bail the next day.
About three months later, on August 3, gangster Ankit Gujjar, one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted men, was found dead inside Tihar’s jail number 3. The two cases have several features in common – from allegations against prison officers and questions over jail treatment to missing CCTV footage and charges of poor handling of the investigation – according to case documents and witness statements seen by HT. Both Tihar officials nor Delhi Police declined to comment on the record.
Phone calls a day before they died
Swami, a resident of Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, was arrested in a murder case in 2015.Jail authorities told the court that three undertrials beat Swami with cricket bats around 7am on May 14. He died on his way to the hospital at 11.30am.
After his death, Delhi Police and the CBI arrested four inmates and said that he was beaten to death by the four prisoners because Swami bullied them. Swami’s sister filed a petition in court May 22,alleging that Swami had called her just a day before he was murdered. The petition said that her brother feared that he would be murdered by prison officers. It was on the basis of this petition that the high court transferred the case to the CBI on July 20.
Gujjar, a 29-year-old with least 13 cases in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh against him, was beaten to death by prison officers inside Tihar’s jail 3 on August 3, according to a complaint by his family. The prison department said Gujjar and two others were injured in a scuffle that broke out after jail officers confiscated a cell phone, data cable, and a knife inside Gujjar’s cell.
A day before Gujjar was found dead inside the jail, he called his sister from the jail, alleging a threat to his life from the prison officers, said case documents.
Later, the family made 16 distress calls to the Delhi Police control room informing them that Gujjar had been beaten inside the jail, according to a status report prepared by the police and submitted to the Delhi high court. The first call was made at 10.55pm on August 3, within three to four hours of the initial scuffle inside the jail, when Gujjar was still alive.
A senior prison officer, said, “The two cases are different. The fact that Shrikant was murdered by other inmates has been substantiated by eyewitnesses.”