The prisoner who is said to have taken his life was supposed to have been under suicide watch. Quite clearly, prison administrators are taking life easy.
The administration of jails in the country has been found to be quite abysmal over the years. It is shot through with corruption of the worst kind involving officers at various levels, and toughs among those incarcerated. Even when not plagued by corruption, inefficiencies abound in the penal system.
On the whole, however, administration of jails manages to remain off the radar as it doesn’t affect the day-to-day life of the people, and there is no political traction for anyone in keeping track of what is happening behind prison walls. What is, however, surprising in the alleged suicide early Monday morning of the main accused in the December 16 Delhi gangrape is that the authorities at Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail failed in their duty to ensure that the accused was made to face trial.
This is what jails are for, pending trial, in the case of serious crimes, or an accused can very well be asked to report to the courts from his home. This case, in particular, had roiled the country — at the social, political and administrative levels — and made headlines internationally too. If the prison authorities were found to be lackadaisical in discharging their duty even in a high-profile case such as this, we shudder to think how bad things must be when it comes to routine matters. The prisoner who is said to have taken his life was supposed to have been under suicide watch. Quite clearly, prison administrators are taking life easy.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has called this episode “a major lapse”. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered. We can only hope it will be concluded speedily and exemplary punishment handed out. The Sheila Dikshit government will be under scrutiny. The Delhi chief minister has been quite content pointing the finger at the Delhi police — which comes under the Union home ministry and not the Delhi government — in the gangrape case and in the matter of managing law and order in the nation’s capital. But now she must ask questions of her own administration.
Six persons were booked for the horrific December gangrape which brought shame to us as a people. One of them is a juvenile (and could well escape the harshest punishment), and one is now dead. With the main accused out of the way, the remaining four could seek to extract advantage from the situation and plead for relatively light sentences even if the charge against them is established. We only hope the case against them will not get weakened due to the deficiencies of the Tihar jail staff. That would indeed be a shocking denouement and there could be a political fallout for the Delhi government.
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