Life in Tihar no sentence for rich

NEW DELHI: On a day when the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence awarded to Santosh Singh by the high court to life imprisonment, Neelam Katara, Nitish Katara's mother, said that in our conditions, life imprisonment is hardly a punishment for influential prisoners.
She alleged that Vikas Yadav convicted of murdering Nitish had spent a good five-and-a-half months outside the Tihar Jail last year in addition to "enjoying a whole host of other exceptions that other prisoners are not given''.
"Special prisoners get special privileges, I have known this from my experience. All you need to circumvent the system is a red herring. Even the 14 years that they spend in jail is not punishment enough,'' she said.
Katara further claimed that to go to court, the prison administration provides special vehicles, sometimes hired taxis, to some prisoners unlike others who travel in armoured police buses.
Vikas has been going to hospital every now and then citing court orders. "People with power and money can actually lead a very comfortable life in jail. They don't even go to work. Vikas and Vishal (Yadav) work as sevadars on jail records which entails serving water, etc. This obviously means that they are not doing anything at all,'' she said.
Prison sources, who chose to remain anonymous, revealed that this is true for a majority of influential prisoners lodged in Tihar. "Over 80% of the prison population at Tihar has a household income of less than Rs 5,000 per month. This only proves that the number of influential people who land in jail is few,'' said sources.
Sources cited the example of a prison staffer who despite being pulled up for making exceptions for politician Shibu Soren when he was in Tihar continued to do so. "When Soren later became CM of Jharkhand, the staffer's brother got a job in the Jharkhand police. If our staff is not loyal, what can be expected of others,'' said the sources.
After 14 years, all convicts serving a life term are eligible for remission, which is more often than not granted. As per the procedure, the case of each prisoner is looked into by a sentence review board and a majority of prisoners get released after 14-15 years.
"Life imprisonment means jail until the last breath but, practically, the case of each convict is considered as per the guidelines of Delhi government after s/he completes 15 years of sentence, unless the crime committed falls in exceptional categories. As for Vikas and Vishal Yadav, all the procedures are in conformity with court orders,'' said Sunil Gupta, Tihar Jail spokesperson.