Foreign women inmates in Tihar Jail being denied bail: PIL in HC

The Delhi High Court today took up the issue of denial of bail and proper phone call facility to foreign women inmates arrested in drug cases and lodged in the Tihar Jail after they wrote a letter to the court about their plight.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar sought response of the Delhi government and the prison authorities on two letters sent by the foreign women who have claimed that their Indian counterparts, arrested in similar crimes, are granted bail.

The court made advocate Ajay Verma, who has also raised the issue, an amicus curiae to assist it.

The foreign women inmates in their letter to the high court have alleged that they were not being granted bail by the trial courts on the sole ground that they being foreigners would abscond or go abroad if the relief is granted to them.

They are also aggrieved by the few minutes they are allotted twice every month to call their family and that too by using a calling card.

The women have claimed that while they get two phone calls of five minutes every month, their Indian counterparts get to make a phone call of five minutes every day.

They have sought that they be allowed one phone call per week.