‘Suicide watch’: December 16 rape convicts are Tihar’s most guarded
NEW DELHI: The most guarded men in India’s largest prison, which houses over 18,000 inmates, are not Mumbai underworld gangster Chhota Rajan, Delhi’s biggest don Neeraj Bawana, or Bihar’s strongman turned politician Mohammad Shahabuddin; they are the four convicts of the December 16 gang rape and murder case, who are due to be hanged on February 1 according to the latest court directive.
Prison officials said on condition of anonymity that Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Akshay Thakur (31) and Vinay Sharma (26), who were moved on January 16 to Tihar’s Jail No 3, where the death sentence will be carried out, are on “suicide watch” the likes of which Tihar has never seen before.
The four prisoners are lodged separately in single cells in a section of the prison’s “high-risk” ward. The living space, about six feet by eight feet, has an open front guarded by prison bars; there are no iron railings or beams overhead; no part of the cell can be covered with any cloth; for each cell, there are two guards on duty round-the-clock; and even when the prisoners use the attached toilet, their heads are visible from above a small stone partition.
The cells are checked twice every day for any prohibited item that may have been sneaked in. In addition, each cell has two CCTV cameras -- and the live feed is monitored round-the-clock from a control room in the jail superintendent’s office, and an office in the prison headquarters.
Before the four men were moved to these cells, the guards checked that there was no loose nail in the wall or any loose pieces of metal that could be used to hurt oneself.
“The only way in which these prisoners can hurt themselves is by banging their heads against the wall. This is common method adopted by prisoners to frame the other prisoners, jail officers or postpone their hanging. In their case, even if they do this, the guards can open the cell’s lock within seconds and stop them,” said a senior prison officer, who asked not to be named.
What has prompted this unprecedented level of security, said a second jail official, is that the fifth accused in the case, Ram Singh, was found hanging in the bathroom of the general ward of Jail No 3 on March 11, 2013 in one of the most high-profile incidents of a prison death in India.
“This case is different. Even if one of them takes their life, it is going to cost jobs at the highest level. It won’t be wrong to say that the case is politically important for everyone,” the second officer added.
Apart from the heightened security, the four are being medically examined by a prison doctor every day. A third prison officer, who did not wish to be named, said, the four men are examined once a day and a report is sent to the prison headquarters.
CONVICTS’ LAWYERS SAY TIHAR DELAYING LEGAL PROCESS
A lawyer representing the three convicts has moved a city court seeking relevant documents from jail authorities to file their mercy petition and curative petition.
The application filed through advocate A P Singh said that despite repeated requests, Tihar jail authorities have not supplied the documents on time leading to a delay in filing the different legal options for the convicts who are on death row. The plea, is likely to be heard on Saturday, said Vinay’s mercy petition was ready on January 22.