To keep a check on the incidents of violence reported inside jail vans in the last one year, including the murder of undertrials during transit, the Delhi Police are now considering modifications in the vehicle. As a pilot project, the changes will be introduced in one of the jail vans.
A tender to carry out these changes, which will modify the prison cabins called kharjas and effectively alter the seating arrangement of prisoners to reduce the possibility of clashes, besides ensuring easy manoeuvring for security personnel, was floated on August 12.
Smaller, separate cabins
The experiment will ensure separate and smaller kharjas, unlike the existing designs where the prisoners are put into one cabin. This is also expected to ensure lesser contact among prisoners.
Used to ferrying anywhere between 1,300 and 1,500 prisoners on a daily basis with an average of 30 to 40 prisoners in one van, the Third Battalion of the Delhi Armed Police carries out the risky exercise despite lack of manpower and the risk to life.
The new designs of the jail van also proposes an iron mesh to be placed between potentially aggressive and warring inmates, who are categorised as high-risk.
Further, heavy duty iron pipes will be used as partition between cabins.
Earlier, the policemen would sit at the back of the van with a few guards in the front. Prisoners were seated between these layers of security. In case of a clash, the policemen had to cross a greater distance and negotiate anywhere between one to three gates to reach the troubled area. Also, the passage was such that they had to walk alongside another row of prisoners, which added to the risk.
In the new scheme, the guard’s cabin would be as long as the length of the jail van. The seats will be realigned to form prison cabins with a separate entrance for each one.
“This is akin to the cell arrangement in jails. You can say the vans will be like a moving jail,” said a police officer.