NHRC team visits Tihar, prepares dossier on 'prevailing conditions'

New Delhi, Jun 14 (UNI) A five-member National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team today visited Tihar Jail, for a first-hand feel of the conditions in which inmates at the Asia's largest prison lived, prompted by reports of seven deaths in eight days there.

The team, led by SSP Mamta Singh of the NHRC Investigation Division, spent about three hours at the high security prison inspecting and collecting details on the facilities available for prisoners, according to sources.

''The team, which visited Jail No 3 and 7, also enquired on the steps the jail administration had taken to deal with the situation that led to the death of seven people in about a week's time.'' As many as seven people, including a jail warden, had died at Tihar Jail since June 6, which led the commission to send its team to the prison for a 'first-hand' report on 'conditions' prevailing there.

Though no specific reasons have been attributed to the deaths sources say the recent heat spell could be one of the likely causes, besides over crowding, lack of proper amenities and callous attitude of jail authorities towards prison inmates.

The team will submit its reports in two weeks time.

UNI