An essay based on my experience inside Tihar.
For the first time since my father's death last year, I was happy that he was no more, for, at his age, he wouldn't have been able to take this pain. And yet as I sit down to write this, there’s no one I miss more because my life was always about talks with him. And the only person who would have truly appreciated and actually understood and enjoyed this essay was him. I dedicate this to him.
A couple of months back a completely illegal arrest wrt to a service tax issue, made a magistrate send me to Judicial Custody in Tihar. At first, I was of course very angry, but by the time the formalities got completed, the anger changed into a quest for knowledge about a system that my father, Dr Malay Chaudhuri and I had written extensively about in our 2003 book 'The Great Indian Dream' (in the chapter 'Indian Jails: Innocents inside Criminals outside'). After all how many people with an interest in jail reforms get a chance to experience first hand what really happens inside India's most feared jail, the Tihar? So armed with a pen and notepapers 24×7 (it used to be in my track pant pockets even while I slept) I jotted down all the points that I could gather during my stay to make the stay as meaningful as possible.
To my surprise and to the credit of the government and Ms Kiran Bedi (every senior official irrespective of whether they were there during her time or not swears by her greatness), not all things inside were as horrible as they show in outdated Indian movies. Yes, it's not like the European jails - where you are almost in a 4 star educative and humane environment - that one reads about or I heard from a learned Deputy Superintendent Shri Kumud Ranjan (who was sent on a study tour of jails in UK and Scotland by Indian Government) during one of my interactions over a cup of exquisite coffee. But nevertheless, it's way better than anyone can imagine. And yet, there are things that can't be allowed to exist in any civilized society. In this essay, I try to bring about each and every aspect of Tihar as experienced first hand.
THE GOOD
First, let's talk about the good. Well, there was so much good, that other inmates used to tease me saying "Dr. Sahib ko toh jail itna pasand aa gaya hai ki yahin pe basne ka iraada hai" or stuff like "Chaudhuri sahib ko jail ka khaana bhi pasand hai, ghar mein jaake yahin se roz khaana mangwaane ka iraada hai!” meaning Arindam likes jail so much that he plans to settle down here only or for that matter Arindam is so in love with jail food that he will order food from here only after going back home. Truth be told. Tihar isn't anyway like the idea of a jail you might get from Hindi movies. It’s not a dark place where you are locked up without any freedom. On the contrary, as you enter Tihar the beauty of the place hits you. The neat kilometres of jet black roads with tall palm trees on both sides and beautiful greenery and cleanliness makes you feel you have entered a 4-star beach resort indeed. Tihar is one of the least polluted places in Delhi nestled in between thousands and thousands of old shadowy trees and greenery, (in every jail and ward). Every corner of the jail is spanking clean barring the entry point to each jail called the Deodhy. Tihar has about 8 or 9 jails inside. And I spent time equally in jail No. 2 and No.4. Jail no. 2 because that's where all covid time entrants were being sent first and jail no. 4 because all those with names starting with A and R were lodged there (yes Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal were lodged here in past). Jail no. 2 had 5 wards inside it and jail no. 4 had 15 wards inside. The entry to each jail is through a gate that takes you inside what they call as Deodhy (guess somehow they use Persian terminology for most things in Tihar). That's a place where visitors can come to meet you, the superintendent and his officers have their offices and the administrative wing lies. It resembles at best a clean government office.
The exit gate of Deodhy leads you inside the jail and its again most scenic and beautiful. The wards where inmates are kept are typically located around landscaped huge lawns and gardens with multiple fountains, sculptures, statues, ducks and peacocks. All the visible walls have beautiful paintings made by the more creative inmates. Each ward has different kinds of inmates and facilities. Some wards have multiple barracks where 40 to 80 inmates stay in each barrack and some have 20 to 60 cells (called 'Chakkis') where only 1 to 3 people stay in each cell. Some wards are for senior citizens and some are for high risk where dreaded gangsters, terrorists and underworld dons are kept. There's a ward where the food is cooked -called the Langar (resembling a modern kitchen of a big restaurant with clean shelves, huge gas stoves and pans etc.). In both the jails, I was in wards, which had individual cells for 1 to 3 people. But I did get to visit other wards next to mine.
Each ward is again beautifully made like a rural ashram- reminding me of my visits to Bharat Sevashram and Ram Krishna Mission in my childhood). At the centre of each ward is always a mid-sized park/garden/very large old-fashioned Indian verandah (whatever you call it) with at least one fountain - which mostly doesn't work. Because inmates keep walking on the verandah/park, there's no grass but it has countless trees - beautifully kept. Around this giant verandah are the single-storied cells or barracks, with direct view and access to the open air, sunlight and the verandah. I stayed in independent cells. Each cell has two rooms back to back of 11ft×8ft nagging the total size 22×11ft. The inside room has a clean washroom (you can ask for a cell with English toilet too, as I did) and a bathing place with a curtain. It also has a cemented bed of 3ft×7ft next to the wall. So one inmate always gets that. The others make thick beddings on the floor with multiple quilts and bedsheets etc. provided by the jail. Normally the two others sleep in the outside room. The rooms have a 4ft grilled iron door facing the verandah giving access to sun, moon and the trees. In winters thick transparent plastic sheets are put on these doors so that cold air doesn’t flow in.
The cells have fans and I heard on special request a cooler can also be put, like in jail no.2 Shri Om Prakash Chautala had. Similarly on special request, one can also get additional wooden cots (my ward mate in jail no.4, Shri Sajjan Kumarji -sent to jail at the age of 74- had one). TV is a more normal thing. In the barracks of convicts, one could actually see about 60 LCD TV sets for 80 inmates who got just about 5ft* 8ft space to themselves. In that itself they had space for their personal TV sets and 2 extra table fans etc. in barracks designated for the undertrials, there's a giant LCD TV for everyone to watch (the controls to it managed by the elected barrack monitor). Movies and latest web series' come in pen drives, though currently, people were enjoying the IPL every night. My cell in jail no. 4 had a TV set as well - gifted to me by a ward mate, Er. Rasheed (as his cell had three of them), a super intellectual, fearless and honest MLA from Kashmir arrested under NIA - reading whose frivolous charge sheet about his FB posts and YouTube videos would make you roll on the floor with laughter.
Each cell and barrack is opened from 5.30 in the morning till 12pm and then again from 3pm to 7pm. Every morning at 5.30am the loudspeakers would start the morning prayer song 'Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum' and the day ended at 7pm in the evening with the evening prayer song from our childhood cult classic Ankush - 'Itni Shakti Hamein Dena Daata'. The afternoon time when it's closed is the lunch and naptime and post 7pm is the dinner/tv/ sleep time. TV programs are turned off at 12.15am. While we had access to most channels like Star, Zee, Sony and IPL matches; the news was restricted to only DD and I realized that nothing much had changed about DD since the 80s when I used to watch DD news. Oh yes, every jail also has its own FM room and every ward its own music system where all the latest Hindi songs keep playing.
When the cells or barracks are opened, inmates typically take a walk in the humongous verandah outside or sit in each other's cells and chat together, sing songs etc. Each jail has a well-stocked library (I finished all of Manto's literature during my stay), a music room with guitars, synthesizers etc. (that also doubles up for a church on Sundays), a mosque, a temple (in jail no.2, in fact, there were big clean temples in each ward as was a place for Namaaz), a saloon, a meditation room, a gurdwara, a computer training room, a vocational training room, an IGNOU education centre, a flour mill, a laundry that picks up your clothes once a week, an ironing facility, a welfare office, an OPD with beds and completely free treatment, and medication (for serious illnesses the common big hospital is in jail no.3), an x-ray room, a well-equipped physiotherapy room (where one can even do weight training etc.) and a canteen.
Depending upon the jail there are unique facilities in each jail. Jail no.2 had a factory that produced food items - from biscuits to green tea- where inmates could work and earn some money and reduce their punishment time (if you work 8 hours a day your jail term days are counted of only 16 hours - effectively reducing your term by one third). There is nothing like rigorous imprisonment or stone cutting inside jails. In fact, as you complete two-thirds of your term as a convict, you get so many furloughs and paroles that you spend about 5 months with your family and only 7 months inside jail. In the last stretch, you even get a chance to be in an open jail, where you go out at 8am to your home or office and come back at 8pm only to spend the night in jail. Jail no.4 had a jute factory where people were making jute bags etc. it also had a fabulous Triveni Kala Sangam type art gallery cum art school stocked with very very cost-effective and amazing paintings by inmates - I did spend a lot of time there as it reminded me of the regular visits to art galleries with my dad during childhood days.
The canteen is where you can spend 7k rupees a month legally. It's well stocked with best quality products like Dettol and Pears soaps, Head & Shoulders and L'Oreal shampoos, Odomos, Milk, Bisleri, Patties, variety of Kellogg's breakfast cereals, Paneer, Mayonnaise, Jam, Butter, Chat Masala, Elaichi, Cloves, Roohafza, Chyawanprash, Thandai, Namkeens, Chocolates, Dates, Ladoos, Petha, variety of Tea and Coffee, Plates, Glasses, Spoons, Bowls, Buckets, Mugs, Jugs, Plastic mirrors, Undergarments, Towels, Slippers, Bags, Copies, Paper, Pens- basically everything you can need. Once a week they get fruits of all varieties and once a week they get salad ingredients like tomato, onions etc. Inmates buy in large quantity to stock them up in their cells. It seems before covid even Amul ice cream used to be available. Apart from these things that you can buy, each inmate is provided with a spanking clean white colour food tray, free toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, Dabur amla hair oil and Harpic on request to keep the toilet clean.
The food is served in the cells (there is no common canteen with sitting arrangement) and is of good quality. Every meal has a well-cooked clean vegetable and a dal. At least two to three times a week you get a soybean preparation. Sundays are made special. In the mornings you get poori aloo or poori kheer and two servings of milk and in the nights the rotis are laced with ghee. They serve two meals a day and tea with bread in the morning and tea with biscuits in the evenings. Holidays are also made special with special preparations like halwa etc. Navratras have special food for those who are fasting and any innate with any special food requirement can get permission and get the same. Basically, you can get anything with a little effort by taking permission - which mostly you get easily and at times by greasing a few palms with a thousand bucks or so. You have access to drinking water in your taps for 30 minutes every morning and evening and normal water almost throughout the day. Every ward has a water purifier attached water cooler, a coffee machine and an induction stove (to heat up your milk or make an extra cup of tea or coffee or to make paneer etc.) and often a coffee machine. Most inmates make their own jug of daily yoghurt additionally.
It does seem the food was much better till recently when the contract of the supply of vegetables and cereals was with Amul. Now they have given it to private companies who are more interested in making profits.
Every cell gets a free newspaper of their choice. One can additionally read more in the library or order by paying. Engineer Rasheedji used to get about 10 papers (including 8 in English and 2 in Urdu) at the cost of 1500 bucks per month. We used to enjoy them free!! The democratic right of writing your notes is totally intact with no one ever checking what you write. Rasheedji had written 1600 pages of his autobiography in his 18 months of stay.
Each jail has multiple sports facilities. While each cell has indoor games like ludo, carrom etc., each ward has a badminton facility for sure. Many wards, which are bigger, have cricket grounds or football fields or volleyball courts. Jail no.4 had a sports stadium with three basketball courts and table tennis areas. It seems jail no.7 where economic offenders are kept (I was supposed to be there but for some clerical mistake it seems) even has a pool table. So inmates have endless possibilities of keeping up with their favourite sport. We used to play cricket on Sunday mornings, though our ward didn't have a cricket ground. Each ward has weights and dumbbells in a corner designated for fitness.
The saloon has very cheap facilities. The lowest price is 15 bucks for a shave and the highest is 55 for a massage or facial. You can get the hair cut of your choice - unlike what you see in movies, every inmate is free to keep any haircut he wants and one gets to see the latest and most stylish cuts all around. You have shampoo to hair dyeing facility and there are specialist hairdressers who are most sought after.
Jail police of all levels have no access to firearms because if any inmate overpowers an official with a firearm, that's the day hundreds, can escape. Every inmate has access to RTI forms; judges, activists, NGOs and can make endless petitions - which do scare jail authorities a lot - though very few inmates use it. There is a free legal cell in each jail with very helpful lawyers and many poor inmates get a huge help. It is the only place with access to the Internet though it’s restricted to only legal websites and courts.
The jail superintendents generally visit each cell in each ward at least once a week and hear all grievances. Both my superintendents Mr. Adeshwar Kant and Mr. Rajkumarji were very kind and each time I met them they offered great tea, coffee or kava. Mr. Kant actually tried to organize my workshops on three different occasions for the staff and inmates but due covid related social distancing norms each time his team couldn't make it happen. That's one thing that would have made my stay complete as I had promised my son that I will go inside and give lectures and come out. But then I did give some to the people around me. Made a few people realize why believing in God and Religion was a sign of total intellectual bankruptcy. Made them realize 99% of inmates were praying to God every given opportunity but there was no God really listening to them. And yes, changed the diet of many people and made a friend I made lose at least 15kgs in front of me. Mr. Kant has promised to invite me for lectures once the covid related norms are relaxed. I wait and look forward to that.
In non-covid times, people have access to a couple of face-to-face meetings with their family members for 30 minutes every week. In fact, the overall facilities are actually so good that during winters the number of people inside Tihar goes up since a lot of people commit a small crime and come inside to enjoy free stay, free food, free medicines and healthcare, a warm bed and great recreation facilities. There are in fact many people inside the jail who don't want to come out anymore as their family has disowned them and they are well settled into a daily life inside jail with friends made inside the jail premises.
Yes. While most friendships that start inside jails don't last. Some do. You do at times strike great friendships. After all very rarely you get to spend the entire day and night of the lowest phase of your life in someone's company. And if that person takes genuine care, the gratefulness lasts a lifetime - especially given the universal fact that once you are inside a jail, the reality of friends in the outside world suddenly becomes crystal clear. Most often than not, the ones who were there with you for decades never check on you, your loved ones disappear and often even your own family members leave you. Those who stay back and fight for you in the outside world are the only ones you ever stay connected with after coming out. And the ones who took care of you inside.
I was personally lucky. A few years of challenging times had already shown me the reality of most people around me. Those who had stayed back were the ones who fought every second to get me out. And luckier still to strike at least two exceptional friendships inside the jail. One with a guy nicknamed Gangster - he protected me 24*7 during my entire stay. A sharp business mind and a beautiful heart, this friendship and brotherhood will almost certainly last a lifetime.
The second was with the greatest motivator; a positive thinker and support system one could ever expect to meet inside a jail - Mr. Atul Gupta of Earth Infrastructure. He had been in jail for 3.5 years and was the one standing at the gates of my Ward No.15 when I entered jail No. 4 to give me the warmest welcome ever possible inside a jail (the additional superintendent and a wonderful human being I met at the Deodhy upon entering jail No.4, by the name of Shri Ashok Rawat who had informed him in advance about my arrival). From the moment I entered the ward to the moment I left after getting my bail, Atulji was there at every step guiding me and helping me like a brother and mentor. His giant smiles and big laughter kept everyone in the ward happy. His helping hand was always there for everyone in need - especially the poor and the needy. His endless and unconditional love for his son, his parents, his love of past makes one believes humanity and love are the greatest ever gift. He used to make it a point to save everyone inside from gangsters roaming around. From jail authorities to inmates, everyone had a deep respect for him for his lovely attitude. I will never forget the how on a day when I was low, he sang songs, danced, cracked jokes, gave me chocolates, got everyone I liked around me and carried on and on till I was fine. Miss you bro, you will be out soon and we will indeed go a long way.
Yes, all the wards do have a phone booth.
But despite all the above great facilities, with the access to phones restricted to only 5 minutes a day it often becomes tough to pass time with so much in mind to communicate to your people back home.
As one of my ward mates, Shri Avdesh Goel (who was there with his amazing and always smiling 26-year-old son Aditya - both in the same Earth Infrastructure related case) would say, "jail mein din nahin kat te, maheene beet jaate hain" meaning inside jails at times its tough to spend a day but months pass easily.
THE BAD
While the good are many, the bads are no less. One of the worst things is that the barracks for 40 inmates or less are overcrowded with up to to 80 plus inmates. And worse it has only one toilet inside. Though I never stayed in one, I have heard however clean the inmates try to keep it, it often stinks. The inmates normally avoid using it - but for an emergency when the doors are locked in the night- and use the common toilets that every ward has (which are just average in terms of cleanliness standards and could be kept far far cleaner). Overcrowding is one of the biggest bads of Tihar. A deputy superintendent told me that there are three times more prisoners in Tihar than it was meant for.
The wardens and jail staff are mostly untrained in soft skills and their abusive language especially with inmates from economically poorer backgrounds is deplorable. They get paid pretty less and thus are like beggars hounding the inmates and trying to sell every minute facility that in any case is the right of each inmate. During these covid times with meetings with family members cancelled, everyone could get two ten minute e-mulakats (meetings) with their families or one 30 min legal mulakat. But they try to sell these facilities too and if you grease their palms, try to create hurdles. Even on the day of your release they hound you like vultures and keep begging you to pay something till the last second.
There are inmates inside the jail - most of them undertrials - who are there for petty theft of 2.5k rupees or 10k rupees. It's painful to see such poor people there for hardly any crime. One such inmate said he had no option. He earned 9k rupees and runs his family that includes a child and old parents. He needed money for mother’s treatment. A country without social security, abject poverty, illiteracy has no right to throw such people in jails. Rather the courts must apologize, pay them money, give them universal basic income and health and send them for social service and education programs to reform them and let them resettle back into normal life. Under trials consist of about 70% of the total inmates. This means they are there despite their crime not been proven yet. Needless to say, 70% of them are barely educated and the high majority are from the Dalit or Muslim community. What is most painful is that any poor boy that is arrested for one small crime soon sees multiple criminal charges being put on him by the police just to finish off various unfinished cases lying with them. These boys sit clueless as to what happened and how to ever get bail in so many cases and get out of jail.
As per jail staff, about 35% of the jail is filled with men jailed on rape charges. This figure may be incorrect, but talking to prisoners also made me feel the same. What is correct for sure is at least 65% of these men accused of rape are clueless about what they did and are totally innocent by all means. Most of them have been framed by a dejected live-in partner or ex-girlfriend. Many have been framed as an act of revenge. A 78-year-old man who can't even stand properly came in totally clueless on a similar charge. He had gone to collect rent from his lady tenant, which was long overdue. The misuse of section 376 is at its peak and all jail authorities accept that (as well as the approximate figure of the innocent I quoted) and if the topic is picked with anyone, furiously go on and on giving tens of examples of such fake rape cases. What a shame.
The genuine rapists (strangely they have no shame in admitting) are from the poorest of poor families. So uneducated, economically backward and looked down upon that again the society is to blame more for their act. They look like malnutrition weaklings. A few basic self-defence classes for girls in every school and they would have been in all likelihood be able to avoid being raped. What a shameful failure of the system indeed.
Many jails across the country allow the consumption of cigarettes and tobacco inside. Unfortunately, Tihar doesn't. No, I don't smoke or drink. Haven't ever done. But I saw first hand what the ban in Tihar results into. It leads to illegal smuggling, fights and a 24*7 search for who has access to some illegal tobacco. Wardens and criminals thrive through the black market. It could be easily made accessible at a slightly higher price inside wards and inmates who have nothing else to do would be far happier. Even marijuana should not only be legalized throughout the country but also inside jails. In any case, everyone is smoking it. Just that they get it at an exorbitant price and have to do all kinds of illegal things for the same. The wardens have extra power to get anyone's cell or bed area searched and then gets him punished for illegal possession of something that should have been legally allowed. At most, there could be one area designated for smoking and smoking could be banned inside rooms.
The ways of smuggling tobacco and marijuana are also highly risky. One day while I was taking a stroll in the grounds, I heard scary sounds of someone vomiting in the public toilet complex. I was about to rush but others stopped me saying someone must be vomiting tobacco balls. Upon detailed enquiry, I found out these guys swallow up to 80 to 100 marble sized wrapped balls of tobacco and escape the stringent checking that takes place at the entry (entrusted to Tamil Nadu Special Police -TSP- deliberately because they don't understand Hindi or English and thus are less likely to be corrupted). After coming inside they drink surf water and vomit out all the balls. They count them to make sure that all the balls are out. Often one ball explodes inside due to which they have to be rushed to the OPD with serious pain. All for something totally unavoidable in my opinion.
I was surprised that egg was not freely available in the canteens nor a part of the daily diet. Whoever is in charge of diet needs to learn the basics of food. Eggs are amongst the most important ingredients in any daily diet and while having vegetarian food for inmates is a good idea, not having eggs for those who need is pathetic.
While there was a geyser in my ward in jail no.4 I didn't see the same in jail no.2. It seems inmates would make heating rods with nails to warm up water buckets for bathing in winters. This is such a basic facility; I wonder why it isn't there in every ward. A central geyser is the least human need during winters.
I had heard the bus in which dozens of inmates are taken to for court hearings and made to sit for 6 to 8 hours is the most claustrophobic thing ever possible. It seems the gatekeepers don't even supply a glass of water during the entire duration. I was inside it for just 15 min during my transfer from jail no.2 to jail no. 4, and I could totally understand what people felt. The least they can do is limit the number of inmates per bus to about 25 and keep bottles of water inside.
Each inmate is officially allowed only 3 sets of clothes. For more, they have to bribe the officials. Why? While I stuck to the rule- because of which I used to regularly have inmates coming up to me and saying I must get some good clothes from home... or have wardens saying, I looked you up in the internet yesterday with all your suits etc., why don't you get some decent clothes?? The fact is for inmates it's a place to try and remain well-dressed and looking good. I heard of one famous inmate in jail no.4 (who had left before I came) who took custody parole to go home and instead went to Emporio in Delhi and bought bags full of designer clothes and shoes and came back. Funny things aside, those staying for long need more clothes. And everyone (including poorer inmates) barring absolutely honest souls like Rasheedji have many more sets of clothes and get up looking clean and fresh daily.
While there's a 5 min telephone booth in every ward, I do feel in today's day and time the number of booths should be increased and the time increased to at least 15 min. The lack of any facility for emergency calls to your home is also scary. That should be made available at an extra cost. Yes, one can go to the jail superintendent and take permission. And while the superintendents are in general accommodative, all the wardens and the gatemen create a lot of difficulties and hurdles for the same. I also feel the e-mulakat time that's there twice a week must be increased from the current ten minutes to at last 30 minutes by increasing the number of computers by three times, given the complications in organizing it. Oh yes, every inmate waits for his day's 5 minutes of call. It's ridiculously criminal that the telephone works through some server system that is down at least 15 to 20 per cent of the days. I have seen how restless and pained everyone during those days when they can't make their rightful call. In today's day and time, such an outdated system is totally unacceptable.
The lack of enough surveillance cameras makes the jail far less secure than it should be. A day before I was coming out -as a consequence of a recent murder in jail no.1- I heard jail no. 4 was getting 800 new cameras. But what made me wonder was why such a late decision? As per me every cell and barrack must have cameras inside. Though there's a hole made for the same there were no cameras. In fact, forget the individual cells, the wards themselves had very few cameras and wardens would often keep them deliberately in bad angles so that even the little bit that they could, never gets recorded.
What is also strange and sad is that murderers and gangsters are most often in the same wards as others. The interaction between the non-heinous crime inmates and those inside the jails for heinous crimes leads to the normal guys getting exposed and initiated to the world of serious crime. Multiple gangsters come up to you and offer their low-cost rate cards for murders of various kinds including the criminals owning up the crime and coming to jail because they have no fear of jail. Their chilled-out stories about their crimes impact and influence the uneducated minds of the economically backward and less educated youth who have come in for a far lesser crime, and they go out ready to take on worse crimes for higher payoffs. Hearing the stories of each person boasting of multiple murders and them describing it in a movie-style does have a negative impact.
The latest modus operandi for murders seems to be the use of juveniles. Every gangster seems to be looking out for kids of 14 to 17 years. Some who started young but couldn't leave later shared their stories of how gangsters give them alcohol, women and money and promise them a release in just three years if they are caught. It’s too tempting for the impressionable minds. They boast of how they held two guns in two hands and pumped 34 bullets. They keep watching films like Shootout At Lokhandwala in their barracks and want that kind of life.
Lastly one scary bad consequence of going to jail, I realized, was the total lack of fear about coming back next time by repeating the crime. This is because while the facilities are great and must keep improving (in some developed countries family members are even allowed to come and spend a night with the inmates) there must be mandatory help centres and psychologists for every inmate to make him realize his mistake so that he goes out reformed and not the same person - now more dangerous because he has no fear of even being sent to jail. In fact, almost every life term convict I spoke to had one common thing to say - the moment I get parole or interim bail, I will jump it and never come back. The law of course eventually catches up with all and instead of a 7-year term or 15-year term (strangely different states have different terms) they end up being inside for 25 years and more. All due to lack of reform facilities and guidance.
THE NAZI
If you think that everything till now sounds pretty good or ok, here is the horrendous side of the story that would send shivers down your spine. Once you are inside jail you are almost in an independent state/country by itself, with its own laws and completely disconnected with the outside world. You are now at mercy of the officials and other inmates. If anything happens it can be buried inside forever with no way for the outside world to find out the truth. The jail authorities take full advantage of the same.
In most wards where Mulaiza (fresh inmates) come there is a system of ragging the next day. The warden and his munshi (typically a murder convict with life imprisonment) sit and ask everyone why they are there. Anyone who looks from a decent family or in an economic crime or 420 is politely asked to step away because these are the guys they decide to sweet talk and earn from during their stay. The rest of the entrants are humiliated about their crime. Anyone who is there a rape accused or terror accused is beaten up ruthlessly by the warden and the munshi with a long hollow thick plastic rod they are provided. At times they are asked to hold a tree and stand while they give ruthless shots on their backside pelting out filthiest of abuses. Talk of being like the Nazis.
That's just the beginning. Then they are asked to clean the public toilets (though forget getting any physical punishment in jails, under trials aren't supposed to be doing any work). I have personally heard multiple people being asked to clean a toilet with their mouth. Though others say that's what finally happened, I have my doubts. But the cruel and ruthless uneducated guys are genuinely capable of anything. The sad part is like any process of ragging, those who were ragged ruthlessly just one day before are the ones laughing and cheering the very next day the ragging of new entrants.
Anyone who the authorities want to set right is kept in a cell with hardened criminals, who can then at will or as per instructions of the authorities commit more atrocities. Resisting can always lead to murder, which I heard is most often passed on to their family and outside world as a suicide. Between my two wards itself, leading gangsters from all possible gangs of Delhi were present in cells around mine. Someone had the reputation of having killed another man in the jail itself by gouging out his eyes, someone with a track record of 120 murders. You name the biggest possible gangs and they were there (I just don't want to write their names). In the wards next to mine, under high security, were Gangsters like Neeraj Bawana, underworld Don Chhota Rajan, Dawood aide Anwar Thakur & Political Mafia Mohammad Shahabuddin.
There are notices one can see in the ward office about gangsters getting special orders from the High Court to get special protection from other some other gangster as bumping off each other inside jail also happens. In fact, some gangsters send their killers inside for the same purpose. In jail no.4 where I was staying 4 knives were recovered in front of me on two different days. The question is why had they come in? Obviously for some criminal purpose. That's why I wrote about the immediate need of a camera in every cell and corner of the jails and wards. In fact, along with the wardens an additional human rights person could also be made mandatory in every ward and such atrocities would immediately stop.
One of the worst things I observed, though it’s to do with the state police force and not jail authorities, is the no. Of people with fractured legs limping around. It seems they are repeat offenders and talking to them I found one common story. After capturing them, the police suddenly ask them to look somewhere else. The moment they do that, they are shot on their ankle disabling them forever. This way the police it seems makes sure that they can't ever run again easily from a scene of the crime.
In the barracks specially and throughout the jails, asking for ransoms is one common thing. The gangsters, hand in gloves with the wardens and other officials (it is said that 70% of the money goes to the police people in such cases), do it in regular intervals, making it a must case for economic offence inmates to be kept separately from gangsters. They smuggle blades hidden in their anus and then at the right opportunity put the same on the cheek of the victim and threaten to cut across and give them a smuggled mobile phone (this is possible mainly with the help of police officials) and call up home and send money to their representatives outside.
Knives and sharp ice piercing iron nails are also smuggled inside the jail to facilitate ransom acts and murders. These are often made inside the jail by rubbing steel spoons on the floor or snuggled through 'throws'. Throws are balls with mobile phones or tobacco or knives inside that are thrown from the main roads outside into the jail/ wards. Again without the connivance of wardens, these are difficult to hide. Of course, there are 'Dabang' officers who come once in a while and change everything. The previous superintendent, Shri Rajesh Chauhan, who had just been sent from jail no.4 to head three other jails it seems was one such man. Everyone in the jail was full of praise for him as to how he had stopped all of the above-mentioned activities during three years of his stay. But that's more of an exception than the rule.
Apart from sending to Kasuri (solitary confinement in a small cell without sunlight - that's what I have been told) anyone who the jail authorities have an issue with - multiple such cases happen daily - is taken to the 'Chakkar' (the central place inside the jail where all activities are coordinated from and all important announcements are made throughout the day) and tied or hanged to a tree and beaten up ruthlessly for long. And a punishment or jail case is filed against them, making their release all the more difficult. People are sent to jail and that's their punishment. These added and completely deplorable extra-judicial inhuman acts are beyond what one can imagine.
But worse I guess is that none of these happen with the real big gangsters who have multiple murder cases against their names. They are the VIPs in jail. The best food and best facilities are always given to them. They are the ones with access to illegal mobile phones, including Android phones. Every official talks to them with a lot of respect and care. If they misbehave, irrespective of who it is, the gangsters make sure to remind them on their face that they have families outside and in one call they will face bullets.
Finally, jails also have something called the siren to freely use their extra-judicial powers. It never happened in front of me but it seems sirens are used when they plan to set someone or a group of people right. When a siren goes off in a jail (such a thing happens once in 6 to 9 months) hundreds of TSPs and other wardens from the entire Tihar complex enter one jail (and have the power to beat up any and every person roaming around) with a target to round up one particular person or gang and then beat them up to the point of near-death - actions that definitely end up with many broken bones. Post a siren, a report is filed that there was an uncontrollable riot-like situation and therefore to control the mob this had to be done. In any case, after such a beating, no one dares to complain.
In a nutshell, every day inside is a new day requiring new survival strategies with different kinds of sharks - from jail officials to gangsters lodged inside. If you come out unscathed, you need to have mastered the skills from the movie 'Life is Beautiful’, which was partially inspired by the book:
'In the end, I beat Hitler'.
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