Too much risk: Delhi prisons suggest online hearing instead of court visits

The process of escorting a prisoner to the court requires a lot of time and manpower while a lot of risk is also involved. More high-profile the prisoner is, more is the risk involved.

Despite heavy security, there are often security threats and risks of disruption in law and order whenever high-profile prison inmates are produced before courts for hearing. To keep this possible risk at the minimum and ensure that the inmates have minimum interaction with the outsiders, the Delhi Prisons authority is proposing that physical production of inmates before court is permanently stopped and more and more hearings via video conferencing are put in place, according to a media report.

Several discussions are underway on the same and there are proposals on how to carry out safe passage of high-risk prisoners or dreaded gangsters lodged in jail to courts across Delhi-NCR for physical production, according to a report.

The Delhi Prisons authority is proposing the setting up of more video conferencing facilities throughout the three city prisons for the purpose, according to officials quoted in the report.

Too much manpower and time consumed

The process of escorting the prisoner to the court requires a lot of time and the more high-profile the prisoner is, the more manpower it is. Besides, there is always an added risk of these inmates interacting with accomplices outside court and there are often instances of chits and info being shared during the process.

"It takes unnecessary manpower and time to escort a prisoner for physical hearings and can also possibly lead to the inmate interacting with several outsiders in court where they pass chits and interact with accomplices for nefarious purposes... Often, rival gangsters also come to court hearings which can lead to law and order problems," a senior jail officer was quoted as saying in the report.

Director General (Prisons) Sanjay Beniwal said to the media house that the proposal, once accepted, will be highly efficient and will allow for safe escorting of prisoners. "It is on the higher authorities to give a go-ahead but we have already started upgrading our IT infrastructure to ensure a hassle-free prison management system," Beniwal said.

All 3 city prisons to set up video-con facilities

All three city prisons - Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli - are now planning to augment their video-conferencing facilities and install them in each prison ward of the 16 jails, according to the report.

"Currently, there is a polycom video conferencing facility and 5-10 Webex facilities inside each of the 16 jails of the three prisons... Once the proposal is accepted, we will upgrade our IT structure and are planning to have such facilities installed in each prison ward," a senior jail officer was quoted in the report.

Out of 16 total jails, there are nine in Tihar, six in Mandoli and one in Rohini. "Every jail has around six-seven wards depending on the size of the jail, which is further divided into barracks. Barracks are further divided into cells where high-security prisoners are lodged," the officer said.

Rival gangs are a risk too

Besides the constant threat of the inmates communicating with their accomplices outside the jail during these trips to the court, another huge risk is that of the rival gangs attacking them and leading to much law and order situation.

In September 2021, jailed gangster Jitender Maan alias Gogi, lodged in a Haryana jail, was shot dead by assailants of rival Tillu Tajpuriya gang inside the Rohini court premises while he was being produced before the judge. The attackers had posed as lawyers.