Delhi High Court transfers the custodial death case of Ankit Gujjar to CBI

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday transferred the probe being conducted by the Delhi Police into the alleged murder of Ankit Gujjar inside Tihar jail, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta passed the order on a petition filed by Ankit’s mother, sister and brother through Advocates Mehmood Pracha and Shariq Nisar.

“Walls of prison, howsoever high they may be, the foundation of a prison is laid on the Rule of Law ensuring the rights to its inmates enshrined in the Constitution of India,” observed the Bench.

The petition had contended that 29-year-old Ankit Gujjar was lodged in Central Jail No 3, Tihar Prison Complex as an undertrial prisoner, who was brutally beaten by the officials of Tihar Prisons on the intervening night of August 3 and 4, 2021. Despite repeated PCR calls and messages, no effort was made to save Ankit. Police refused to register a complaint or FIR in the case and also did not collect any evidence, alleged the plea.

Rather, a counter affidavit was registered on the complaint of Jail officials against Ankit. The FIR on the death of Ankit, which was caused due to multiple blunt injuries, was registered only on the intervention of the Metropolitan Magistrate under Section 156(3) CrPC, it added.

According to the petitioners, the deceased was long being harassed by the officials of Tihar Jail, as he was unable to meet the regularly increasing demands of money made by them. Though the FIR was registered on the complaint of the petitioners, however, the proceedings noted along with the FIR clearly showed that despite repeated complaints when the deceased was alive, no effort was made to save him, to provide him medical treatment and even after his death, effort was made to support the FIR registered against the deceased, they alleged.

Even in the FIR registered pursuant to the directions of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Sections 302, 323, 341 and 34 IPC have only been invoked, despite ample material on record that there was a systematic destruction of evidence and extortion being carried out by the jail officials, hence the investigation be transferred to CBI at the earliest, so that valuable evidence which can be collected is not lost and the inmates of the prison who are the eyewitness, can depose in a fair and free manner, claimed the petition.

The Counsel for the petitioner argued that “police was not conducting investigation in proper format” as the DVR of CCTV installed in the jail was yet to be recovered and the aspect of extortion by jail officials through online transactions was not being looked into.

Earlier on August 18, the Court had issued notice and directed that a status report be filed before September 8, under the signatures of the Director General, Prisons and under the signatures of the Joint Commissioner of Police concerned.

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The Director General, Prisons, was also directed to preserve all the CCTV footage, which have a bearing on the incident, that is, prior to the incident, at the time of incident and thereafter.

The Bench noted in the status report that on the night of August 3 and 4, at around 1.00 a.m., a call was made by the jail staff to Casualty, Central Jail Hospital, Tihar as Ankit was complaining of body ache, upon which the duty doctor and nursing staff visited the ward for medical examination and gave him pain killer injection. Ankit refused for any further treatment/physical examination. At 6.25 a.m. again, a call was made to the duty doctor and on visit in the ward of Ankit, on examination he was found lying supine, pupils were dilated and fixed, pulse was not recordable.

As per the status report filed by Director General, Prison, an internal inquiry was also initiated, which has been completed by DIG, Prisons and Narender Meena, Deputy Superintendent; Deepak Dabas, Assistant Superintendent; Balraj, Assistant Superintendent and Shiva, Warder have been placed under suspension. Eight more jail officials have been shifted from Central Jail No.3 till further orders. The Superintendent, Central Jail No.3, has also been transferred to Prison Headquarter.

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The court also noted that DIG Prisons in the in-house inquiry failed to notice the connivance/laxity of Deputy Superintendent Vinay Thakur, who did not permit ASI Ram Avtar from Police Station Hari Nagar, who had gone to inquire into the PCR call, to go inside the Jail to record Gujjar’s statement.

The post-mortem report of the deceased belies the version of Deputy Superintendent Narender Meena and other staff that a scuffle took place, in which both Meena and Ankit received injuries. From injuries noted, it is evident that the deceased was brutally beaten and left unattended as the case of Jail administration itself is that at around 1.00 AM on the intervening night of 3 rd/4 th August, 2021 Ankit complained of body ache upon which the duty doctor and nursing staff gave him pain killer injection and he refused any further treatment.

“Not only did Narender Meena and others assaulted the deceased mercilessly, the Jail doctor on duty also failed to perform his duty when he examined Ankit at 1.00 AM in night and administered the injection, as he neither informed the senior officers of the condition of Ankit nor referred Ankit to the Hospital. It is unfathomable that when the Jail doctor on duty visited at midnight, he did not see the multiple injuries on Ankit”, said the Court.

“The case file will be transferred to the CBI immediately by the concerned police station. A status report will be filed by the concerned SP, CBI after carrying out investigation before this Court well before the next date of hearing,” ordered the High Court and fixed October 28 as the next date of hearing.

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Observing that in case proper medical treatment had been provided to Gujjar, the court said that his life could have been saved. “The role of jail doctors in not providing proper treatment at the right time is also required to be ascertained by a proper inquiry,” it said.

“Moreover, necessary rules and regulations so that the police are not denied entry in the jail to conduct an enquiry/investigation into the commission of a cognizable offence, are also required to be made. This case also calls for immediate remedial actions by the State and Director General, Prison so that unscrupulous officers at the Jail do not take advantage of knowledge of the non-working of the CCTVs so that they can get away by doing any illegal act/offences.

“A status report will be filed by the Director General (Prisons), indicating the measures taken to streamline the system as regards the CCTV cameras at the Jail and when the same are not working what alternative measures can be taken in the meantime, accountability of the Jail officers and Jail doctors and the mechanism by which immediate entry is provided to the police to the Jail on receipt of an information of a cognizable offence and the remedial steps taken thereon,”

-the order read.