By Samriddhi Thakar
Published on : September 6, 2021 at 18:14 IST
Introduction
“We have lost all faith in the Tihar jail authorities! Absolutely shameless on the part of superintendent of the Tihar jail.”[i] These were the words used by the bench comprising of Justice D.Y Chandrachud and Justice M.R Shah.
Recently, the Supreme Court has slammed the Tihar jail authorities for colluding with the former directors of Unitech, Sanjay Chandra, and his brother Ajay Chandra for continuing illegal activities from the jail.
This is not the first time where jail authorities have conspired with the criminals. In the past, many such instances have taken place. Jail authorities are generally appointed to look after the criminals and not to allow them to indulge in any sort of illegal activities.
Generally, criminals are sent to prison for serving dual purposes i.e., eliminating criminals and rehabilitating them. However, quite opposite can be seen in this case where the jail authorities were themselves helping the criminals to continue with illegal activities.
Thus, this article deals with the cases where jail authorities have colluded with the criminals and gives a brief idea about the duties of jail authorities.
What do you mean by colluding with criminals?
The term colluding simply means conspiring or plotting something. With reference to our topic colluding means jail authorities helping the criminals in carrying out illegal activities, supplying them prohibited material, or manipulating the records.
However, Section 9 of the Prisons Act, 1894 states that no officer of a prison shall sell anything or derive any benefits from selling or letting any article to the prisoner. He shall not involve in money or other business dealings directly or indirectly with the prisoners.[ii]
What are the cases where jail authorities have colluded with the criminals?
- Unitech Case
A few days ago, the Supreme Court of India criticized the Tihar jail authorities for colluding with former directors Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra of Unitech. It was found that they were engaged in illegal activities from inside the jail. The duo had been managing the affairs of the company freely from the jail premises, with the help of Tihar jail authorities.
Therefore, a bench comprising of Justices D.Y Chandrachud and M.R Shah said “We have lost all faith in Tihar Jail authorities! They are sitting in the capital city and defeating the order of the Supreme Court! Absolutely shameless on the part of Superintendent of the Tihar jail.”[iii]
It was also found that an underground office was used by Ramesh Chandra and was visited by his sons when they were out on parole or bail. They also have recovered hundreds of original sale deeds, digital signatures, and several computers containing sensitive information regarding the properties in India and abroad from that office.
Unitech directors were arrested by the police for allegedly cheating the home buyers who had invested in their projects and other such scams.
- Raebareli Case
In the year 2018, a video was surfaced online showing the visuals of Raebareli jail where the criminal Anshu Dixit and his gang were seen consuming liquor and using mobile phones in the jail premises.
According to the sources, along with Anshu and his gang, some undertrials were also seen holding firearms and bullets. The video also showed the prisoners bragging about how they bribed the jailer to get all the favors inside the jail.
Along with this, some undertrials were seen issuing threats to someone and asking them to arrange food, cash, liquor from outside the jail premises. The video also showed the prisoners having pan masala, cigarettes, liquor, and some snacks.
After this video got viral, the Raebareli District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri conducted a raid in the jail premises. However, he was not able to find any other stuff except a cigarette lighter.
Later on, it was revealed by the sources that the jail authorities had colluded with the criminals. Hence, due to this, the prisoners were enjoying the prohibited material.
- VK Sasikala
Sasikala was arrested for disproportioning the assets. She was convicted and imprisoned for a period of four years. She was given preferential treatment in jail. She was allowed to wear her own clothes, cook food, etc. She had a separate visitor’s room for her and the corridor in the jail was barricaded for her.
She had the freedom to move within the prison which was shown by the video clips. Further, she was seen going out with co-convict Elavarasi with a bag in hand. The CCTV footage was submitted to the commission. It was also found that Sasikala met a person with a white shirt and white pants for over four long hours where the maximum time a visitor can meet the prisoner is 45 minutes.
It was also shown that the records of the prison were manipulated to allow visitors to meet her for a longer duration. Serious lapses and falsification of records were found on the part of senior prison officials.
Hence, from above we can come to a conclusion that in this case also the jail authorities have manipulated the visitor’s list and allowed them to meet her beyond the prescribed time. Therefore, this is also a clear case of collusion.
- Bhondsi jail case
Last year, a jail’s Deputy Superintendent, Dharambir Chautala was found supplying drugs and mobile phones to jail inmates. Due to this, the criminals were operating their gangs from the premises of the prison.
After a thorough investigation, it was found that Dharambir was involved in supplying the phones, SIMS, drugs to the jail inmates since his posting in the jail. He was a conduit between the jail inmates on the inside and the drug suppliers from the outside.
Later on, he was arrested and a total of 17 mobile phones including smartphones, 20 SIM cards, 11 batteries, and 230 grams of marijuana was recovered by the police. He was arrested by the police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,1985, and further under the Prevention of the Corruption Act.
Hence, we can see that this is a clear case of collusion as the deputy superintendent helped the jail inmates and various material was found from the jail.
Who are appointed as Jail Authorities and what are their duties?
According to the Prison Manual of India and Prison’s Act, 1894 there are multiple authorities who look after the prisoners. However, we are going to see a few of them.In the Prison Manual, institutional personnel are divided under multiple heads. Institutional personnel include all those personnel who look after the prisoner, prison management, their health, etc. Some of them are given as follows:
Superintendent
According to Section 11 of the Prison Act, 1894 a superintendent is a person who shall manage the prison in all matters relating to discipline, labor, expenditure, punishment, and control. Some duties of the superintendent are as follows:
- Supervise the welfare of inmates
- Look after custody of secret and confidential documents
- Classify the prisoners, provide training and treatment programs and correctional activities to them
- Inspect the prison activities, prison hospital, kitchen, canteen, etc.
- Daily inspection round and weekly night inspection round
- Lookafter staff discipline, allocate duties to personnel under his control.
Additional/Deputy Superintendent
In the absence of the Superintendent, it is the duty of the Additional Superintendent to carry out the activities of the Superintendent. Following are his duties:
- It is the duty of the Additional Superintendent to visit the prison once in the forenoon and once in the afternoon every working day and on Sundays and Holidays when special circumstances render it desirable.
- Visit the prison at night once a week to satisfy him that the guarding is being properly done and that everything is in order, and submit a compliance report to the Superintendent.
- It is the duty of the Additional Superintendent to inform the Superintendent, wherever the guarding arrangements are not satisfactory through his report book.
- To bring to the notice of the Superintendent if any prison staff is helping the prisoner.
- To ensure that the walls, buildings, gates, dormitories, cells, hospitals area, and other places of the prison are properly secured and ensure a system of good lighting in and around the prison.
Deputy Superintendent
The Deputy Superintendent is the Chief Executive Officer of the prison and subordinate to the Superintendent. He is also subordinate to the Additional Superintendent. Following are his duties:
- It is the duty of the Deputy Superintendent to check if all the rules and orders are being followed.
- To supervise security, custody and discipline, supervision over care and welfare of prisoners.
- To supervise the working of guards.
- To visit the prison at uncertain times and check if all the guards are performing their duties.
- To supervise the personnel matters, staff discipline, and staff welfare assisting the Superintendent in all matters pertaining to institutional management.
Guarding personnel
The guarding personnel consists of Chief Warder, Head Warder, and Warders. Each member is given specific duty by the Superintendent on a rotation basis. Following are some of the duties of guarding personnel:
- To open and lock up the prison.
- To maintain discipline in institutional premises, gates, quarantine, barracks, dormitories, cells, work sheds, punishment yards, segregation yards, hospital, kitchen, farm, and in every other section of the institution.
- To report violations of discipline to appropriate officers for taking immediate action as per rules.
- To observe the habits and behavior patterns of inmates and reporting the same to the authorities concerned, helping inmates improve their habits and attitudes.
- To take preventive and control measures for all emergency situations.[iv]
Conclusion
The prison systems of any country play an important role firstly for eliminating the criminals, and secondly for rehabilitating them. The main aim of punishment is to make criminals better human beings so as to be more useful to society.
However, quite opposite can be seen these days. Nowadays instead of giving punishment to the criminals, some jail authorities have started conspiring with the jail inmates. The reason maybe getting money from them or any such thing.
The Courts through various cases have slammed the jail authorities still in the nook of the corner some of the other authority is found helping the jail inmates.
Nevertheless, this should stop. The main duty of the jail authorities is to look after the criminals and not to indulge and conspire with them. If this continues to happen then the punishment given to the criminal will to go waste. Therefore, it is very important that the authorities do not get involved with the criminals.
References
- Supreme Court slams Tihar jail authorities for colluding with Unitech’s Chandras
- Prison manual
- Prisoners Act, 1894
- India’s VIP prisoners
- How narcotics and mobile phones were sold inside Bhondsi jail
- Police probe possible collusion of Tihar jail officials, ex-Unitech promoters
- VIRAL VIDEO: ‘Jailhouse rock’ for criminals? Rai Bareli jail inmates seen consuming alcohol
[i]Supreme Court slams Tihar jail authorities for colluding with Unitech’s Chandra’s , “The Sentinel” (last visited on 4 September 2021)
[ii]Prison Act, 1894, Sec 9
[iii] Prison Manual