The police fired teargas shells and charged with batons as a section of undertrial prisoners on Thursday went on the rampage in the lockup at the Tis Hazari court here, smashing furnitures and fittings, leaving nine people injured.
Around 200 undertrial prisoners were brought to Tis Hazari court for their proceedings and lodged in the court lock-up when a section of them resorted to violence following a dispute over a demand to keep a high-risk prisoner along with his brother in a cell for low-risk prisoners.
As the court lock-up officials refused to bow to the demand, the high-risk prisoner allegedly instigated his friends into violence using blades and injuring some of the inmates, said chief metropolitan magistrate Viond Yadav in his communication to district judge Pratibha Rani while detailing the incident.
The prisoners also vandalised various furniture, fixtures and fittings inside the lock-up, the communication said, putting the number of injured prisoners at nine.
The police had to resort to baton charging and lobbing of teargas shells to put down the violence.
Concerned over the violence, CMM Yadav suggested to Ms Pratibha Rani to consider holding trial and other court proceedings of violent prisoners through video conferencing instead of bringing them to the court. In his suggestions, CMM Yadav also asked the district judge to consider directing the city’s prison director general Neeraj Kumar to prepare a list of prisoners prone to violence so that the subordinate judiciary, in concurrence with the high court, consider dispensing with their production in the court and conduct their trial through video conferencing.
In his communication, the CMM also suggested evolving, alternatively, a system to ensure that a minimum possible number of prisoners prone to violence are brought to the court on the same date.
The CMM also sought district judge Rani’s direction to the North Delhi deputy commissioner of police to ensure that large crowd of jail inmates’ relatives does not gather outside the Tis Hazari court lock-up and create a law and order problem.
Mr Yadav also suggested involving Delhi Armed Police personnel, entrusted with the task of ferrying prisoners between courts and jails. —PTI