Delhi High Court seeks report on 23-year-old’s death inside Tihar Jail, says matter very serious

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a status report from the authorities over a petition filed by the father of a 23-year-old undertrial, who died due to knife injuries inside Tihar Jail, seeking compensation of Rs 5 crore on account of the custodial death.

Hearing the matter, Justice Prathiba M. Singh said the matter is “very serious” and directed that a status report be filed by Tihar Jail authorities and the Delhi government within three days.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on March 5 and asked for CCTV footage of the day when the petitioner’s son died. “The CCTV footage should have been confiscated,” the court said.

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The plea filed by Ali Sher sought court’s direction to Tihar Jail authorities and Delhi government to pay compensation to the tune of Rs 5 crore on account of custodial death of his son Dilsher Azad an undertrial in Tihar Jail No 3, Ward No 9, on November 30 last year.

“On 30-11-2020, petitioner received a call from police officials informing him about the sudden death of his son Dilsher Azad in Jail, on receipt of which information, petitioner immediately reached Tihar Jail in order to ascertain the information so received where Tihar Jail authorities did not co-operate with the petitioner at all and made him wait outside for hours together,”

-the plea said.

The plea further claimed it was local police of Police Station Hari Nagar who informed the petitioner that his son Dilsher Azad has died inside Ward No. 9 of Jail No. 3 of Tihar Jail.

“…despite repeated requests, the petitioner was not being told the real cause of death of his son. Petitioner could barely gather his senses and called his advocate to Tihar Jail and only after his arrival, petitioner could come to know that his son has been murdered inside Tihar Jail and that too with knives when in fact jail authorities claim to have a foolproof security system at place,”

-the plea read.

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The plea, filed through Advocate Anwar A. Khan, further states that he was kept in dark for a considerable period of time with respect to the facts of the case and the circumstances leading to the death of his son who was an undertrial in Tihar Jail.

It further claimed that after the death of his son, the whole future of the petitioner and his wife and other family members has been shattered.