New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked prison officials in Delhi to submit a detailed report on ‘gangster’ Prince Tewatia’s alleged murder in custody last week. This took place Tuesday when the court was hearing arguments on a petition filed by Tewatia before his death, alleging harassment — including extortion attempts and violence — by jail officials.
Tewatia was killed Friday in an alleged gang violence between two groups of inmates of Tihar’s jail number 3 in ward number 6. According to medical reports, he suffered multiple stab wounds. Police claimed these were inflicted using an improvised knife, made by sharpening spoons.
He had been shifted to Tihar in February, from Rohini jail where he had alleged the harassment by prison officials. He was accused in 16 cases of murder, assault and extortion.
Prison officials Tuesday denied the allegations made by Tewatia in his petition and claimed that he was a “habitual offender”, proficient in smuggling prohibited items inside the jail premises.
“During the hearing, the court took note of the killing inside the ward as the previous petition of alleged wrongdoings by prison staff became infructuous and asked for a detailed investigation report on the murder,” additional standing counsel (criminal) Rupali Bandhopadhya told thePrint.
Bandhopadhya also said she had informed the court that jail officials had immediately intervened in the alleged scuffle Friday in which Tewatia was killed and rushed him to the hospital where he was declared dead. An FIR has been registered at Hari Nagar police station and the matter is being investigated by the Delhi Police.
She added that inquest proceedings were initiated under a magistrate in this matter and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has also been informed.
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‘Officer denied allegations’
A status report on Tewatia’s allegations filed on the basis of investigations conducted by a jail superintendent also mentioned that he had received multiple punishments in the past owing to violations of prison rules. These included quarrels with other inmates, self injury, misbehavior with jail staff and recovery of mobile phones.
In response to the allegations of attempts of extortion by a prison official, the status report said that the officer against whom the allegation was made had denied claims made by Tewatia and that he in fact had never interacted with the inmate.
“The mobile numbers mentioned in the petition [from which extortion calls were allegedly made] have been verified carefully and the said mobile numbers do not belong to any official posted in Rohini jail,” the status report said.
The status report further said, “whenever search teams recover any prohibited articles, he manufactures bruise marks over his body to emotionalise and gain sympathy of the courts. He time to time files false and fabricated complaints against the Jail administration before the Honourable courts and other authorities implicating jail officials just to malign their reputation and to fulfill his undue demands”.
According to police sources, thirty-three-year-old Tewatia was earlier an associate of gangster Rohit Choudhary. The main suspect in his murder case is 26-year-old Attaur Rehman, alias Atwa, a sharpshooter. Rehman is a former alleged associate of Tewatia, but things are believed to have turned sour between the two after Tewatia left Choudhary’s gang. He later joined the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, a rival of the Choudhary gang, the sources added.
According to sources privy to the matter, Friday’s physical violence started as a verbal spat between the two groups and Tewatia was stabbed in the chest, lower back, and abdomen. Three others, including Rehman and two other inmates — Vinay and Bobby — also suffered injuries in the fight.
ThePrint had earlier reported that only one warden of constable rank was present in ward 6 of the high-security zone of Tihar’s jail 3, which had 380 inmates at the time of the incident, according to sources. Prison officials have claimed that the alleged violence only lasted only for two-three minutes and that prison staff rushed to separate the two groups immediately.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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