Police refutes allegations of malpractices in court lock-up

Denying the allegations, levelled by an undertrial prisoner in an anonymous letter to the court, the police said they were "false."

"Anonymous complaint seems to be filed by some undertrial prisoner falsely," said the report submitted to the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav.

The report was filed by the lock-up in-charge in pursuance of the court's order seeking a reply on a handwritten complaint by an undertrial prisoner alleging malpractices in the lock-up.

"Providing facility of home-made food and other articles like clothes, cash are not allowed to the UTPs (undertrial prisoners) without the court permission," the report said and added that some UTPs pressurise the lock-up staff to get their demands for food, tobacco, cigarette fulfilled.

"When their demands are not fulfilled, they (UTPs) use abusive language, misbehave with the staff and threaten to complain before the court," it said.

The report also cited the recovery of weapons, tobacco and cash from the UTPs by the lock-up staff on duty and said "some disgruntled UTPs might have made the complaint against the lock-up staff whose illegal demands were not fulfilled."

An anonymous complaint filed on June 26 alleged that in lieu of money police personnel deployed in the court lock-up allow UTPs to consume home-cooked food, meet their family without court's permission and even talk on phone.