Give details of all foreign inmates in Tihar Jail: HC to prison authorities

The Delhi High Court directed today the prison authorities here to give the details of all the foreign inmates lodged in the Tihar Jail, the status of their bail pleas, and the orders passed on them.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued the direction while hearing a PIL related to 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.

The court extended the ambit of the plea to all the foreign inmates, not just women, on the request of amicus curiae Ajay Verma.

The bench had taken up the issue after receiving a letter from the foreign women inmates narrating their plight.

The foreign women have claimed that their Indian counterparts, arrested in similar crimes, are granted bail, but they are not.

They 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.