CBI takes over Tihar Jail violence case

The CBI has taken over investigation into the Tihar Jail violence last year where 18 inmates were allegedly beaten up by the prison staff, officials said Tuesday.

The agency has registered two FIRs in this regard on the orders of the Delhi High Court, which had ordered it to take over the probe, they said.

The court had ordered the probe on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Chinmay Kanojia, who has alleged that his client Shahid Husuf, who was being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), was beaten up without any reason by the jail staff.

The alleged attack on inmates lodged in a high-risk ward in jail number 1 of the central jail on the night of November 21 last year was termed as "very disturbing" by the high court.

The plea has said a particular community, including Husuf, were being targeted by the jail staff causing serious injuries to him and others.

When the incident was brought to the notice of the high court on November 22, the court had set up a committee of senior high court judicial officers to look into the matter.

The committee, in its report, had opined that the inmates were beaten up without any justifiable reason.

It had said that despite unequivocal statutory guidelines, an incident has been perpetrated where prisoners were beaten up with such severity that it had resulted in them harbouring a constant fear of being killed by the prison authorities on one pretext or another.

-PTI