HC orders Tihar to move gangster out of solitary confinement

A Delhi court today directed the Tihar jail authorities to immediately move gangster Neeraj Bawana out of solitary confinement.

Special judge Tarun Sahrawat noted that confinement in regular prison setting for more than ten days has demonstrated negative health effects, and that even apologists of the practice agree that prolonged punitive solitary confinement presents considerable risk to inmates.

"I fail to understand as to why this applicant (Bawana) has been kept in separate confinement despite the lapse of an order issued by the competent authority," the court said.

In his application moved through advocate M S Khan, the gangster told the court that he had been kept in solitary confinement since October, 2017 which had caused him depression.

The court directed the jail administration to shift him "immediately from his separate confinement to some other secured ward, so that he could move, talk and share company with co-prisoners".

The law officer, appearing on behalf of the jail authorities, said that the accused was shifted to a high-security ward to keep him away from other prisoners as he was a "dangerous prisoner".

A Delhi court had in 2016 acquitted Bawana for trying to kill a policeman in a 2015 shootout, but held him guilty of possessing arms illegally.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell had earlier charge sheeted the gangster and nine others, including ex-MLA Rambeer Shokeen, for allegedly running an organised crime syndicate in the Delhi-NCR region.

The force had also filed a charge-sheet against Bawana's elder brother Pankaj Sehrawat and other members of the syndicate under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.