A Delhi court on Thursday summoned the Tihar Jail Superintendent while hearing an application filed by JNU scholar and Delhi riots accused Sharjeel Imam, alleging assault and harassment inside the prison.
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Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat noted that the jail authorities, in their reply to the application, had denied any assault upon the accused and said that Mr. Sharjeel was resisting attempts to search his cell.
The jail authorities added that the search was conducted “under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent Deepak Rana, Asst. Superintendent Manjeet Nagar, along with warder Ravi Tomar and some sahayak sewadars, which is permissible as per the Delhi Prison Rules”.
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Sahayak sewadars are inmates, who, based on their good conduct, are appointed to assist the jail authorities.
Mr. Sharjeel had alleged in his application that the Superintendent had entered his cell under the pretext of a search along with “8-9 convicts” who then proceeded to assault him, called him names and threatened to plant contraband in his cell in the presence of jail officials. He said the incident took place on June 30 around 7:30 pm.
In his application, Mr. Sharjeel has sought protection from any such searches and asked for CCTV footage of the date and time to be preserved and asked the jail authorities to show cause for the search they had undertaken.
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After hearing the application, the court called for the CCTV footage from all three cameras at the spot to be produced and asked the Jail Superintendent to be present at the next hearing on July 20. It also sought that the register of all sahayak sewadars, who were part of the surprise search action, be produced before it.
In their reply, the jail authorities submitted that the CCTV footage of the two cameras inside Mr. Sharjeel’s cell had already been preserved.
After the application alleging assault was filed last week, Tihar officials had said that they had initiated an inquiry into the allegations.