Common links appear in 2 Tihar deaths
On May 14, 2021, prisoner Shrikant Rama Swami died in Delhi’s Tihar jail number 2 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 high-profile 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 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested four inmates and said that he was beaten to death by the four prisfound
oners 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 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.
When contacted a senior prison officer, said, “The two cases are different. The fact that Shrikant was murdered by other inmates has been substantiated by other eyewitnesses too. Gujjar’s case is different. One should not combine the two cases.”
‘Missing’ CCTVS
On May 15, Delhi Police wrote to the superintendent of jail number 2, seeking a copy of the CCTV footage in ward 2, -- barrack number 4 where Swami was allegedly assaulted by other inmates and barrack number 6 where he was later shifted. Prison officers did not provide the footage claiming that the cameras were not functioning.
In the status report, police wrote , “Notice was given to jail authorities to provide CCTV footage of the incident. But they stated that the CCTVS in ward 2 are not in working condition.”
In Gujjar’s case too, the cameras inside ward 1A(where he was assaulted) and 5A(where he was shifted and later found dead) were “switched off for maintenance work”, according to replies by jail officers to the police.
In response to the allegations from Gujjar’s family that jail officers deliberately switched off the CCTVS, the above-mentioned jail officer said, “In Shrikant’s case, we could not provide the footage because the installation of the CCTV cameras was still in progress. But as on September 20, the process is complete. Around 7,000 CCTV cameras have been installed. The process is also complete. The cameras have a recording facility of at least 30 days.”
Deputy superintendents in the dock
On May 14, Delhi Police’s control room received a distress call from inside Tihar jail. The caller, who claimed to be an eyewitness, said that a deputy superintendent had murdered Swami.
Police confirmed that the call was received from inside the jail at around the same time when Swami was being rushed to the hospital but are yet to trace the identity of the caller. During investigation, Delhi Police later traced the owner of the SIM card(from which the distress call was made) to a woman in north Delhi’s Mukundpur but the woman told police that her phone had been stolen but she never reported it.
Gujjar, 29, was allegedly assaulted by jail officers on August 3 after he slapped one of the officers when they were conducting a search of his cell, according to status report filed by prison department. On August 9, Delhi Police filed a case of murder against a deputy superintendent.
To be sure, the deputy superintendent who was named in the distress call is different from the one in Gujjar’s case.
Dissatisfied with Delhi police’s investigation and allegations of extortion against jail officers which led to the murders, the Delhi high court transferred both cases from the Delhi police to the CBI – the Swami case on July 20 and the Gujjar case on September 8.
Both had ’refused treatment’
On September 8, while ordering the transfer of Gujjar’s murder probe to the CBI, the Delhi high court directed the agency to look into the role of jail doctors. The high court on Wednesday noted that when Gujjar was injured, his life could have been saved if proper medical treatment was provided.
On September 11, HT reported that the prison’s inquiry report showed that while Gujjar had suffered 12 injuries on his body, the jail doctors only gave him a painkiller “because Gujjar refused treatment” at around 1 am on August 4.
According to a jail superintendent’s report in the Swami murder case, he too had “refused treatment.”
In that case, the superintendent submitted a report to the police claiming that at around 7 am on May 13, the prison officers saw four inmates -- Arun, Akash, Ganpat and Kishan -beating Swami with a cricket bat. “The inmate Arun was also injured and blood was oozing out from his head when the jail officials intervened. Immediately Arun was taken to jail dispensary where he was given stitches and Shrikant was asked to come to the jail dispensary, however he refused to go to the dispensary.”
Sometime later (the time is not specified in the report), jail officers found Swami complaining of “pain and trepidation in his body” and also noted the “injury in his body” after which he was rushed to the dispensary and later to the Safdarjung Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Some jail officers said they found prison doctors negligent in discharging their duty in the two cases.
“The prison department will soon write to the state government about the conduct of the doctors inside. The CBI is investigating the role of every person in the case,” said a second prison officer, requesting anonymity.