What should prison authorities do to ensure that high-profile inmates are not stabbed violently in full public view? If the administration of Delhi’s jails is to be believed, the answer is to ship them out of the state, even if it means amending a statute from 1950. This newspaper reported on Thursday that gangsters in Delhi’s three jails may be moved to prisons in other states, in what was described as a measure aimed at snapping criminal syndicates built and operated from behind bars. Such a move will require amendments to the Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1950 – a process that needs approval from the home ministry, after which undertrials, too, may be shifted to other states.
The context is obvious: The murder of gangster Sunil Balyan, better known as Tillu Tajpuria, last week. The brutal killing saw the gangster being stabbed nearly 100 times by members of a rival gang and raised serious questions about the conduct of the prison staff who appeared to have condoned egregious violations of regulations. The Delhi high court, too, flagged these “unacceptable” developments last week when it said it was unable to comprehend why no action was taken when the incident was being recorded on CCTV. As the court rightly noted, the security of every prisoner is the responsibility of the government, and the authorities would do well to probe the alleged lacunae thoroughly, and on priority. As the experience with employing guards from outside the state has shown – Tamil Nadu personnel are deputed in Tihar and other Delhi jails but were unable to control the flare-up in Tajpuria’s death – there is no quick fix. Only the painstaking process of establishing oversight and adherence to regulation will work.
