Four Tihar jail officials have been suspended for the security lapse on Friday when Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is currently serving life sentence in the high-security prison after conviction in a terror funding case, was spotted inside the Supreme Court.
A jail official said the Department of Delhi Prisons suspended a Deputy Superintendent, two Assistant Superintendents, and a head warder on Friday night. “Prima facie, they were found to be responsible based on the preliminary enquiry. A detailed inquiry is being conducted by Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Tihar, to identify if any other official is also responsible for the security lapse,” the official said.
Malik was accompanied by prison security staff to the courtroom of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta and seen waiting for his turn to argue his case in person, creating a flutter in the apex court.
The case concerned a production warrant issued by a Jammu court against him in connection with the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel and the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister.
The Bench asked what a life convict was doing appearing in person. Both Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor S.V. Raju criticised the jail authorities for bringing Malik, a high-security prisoner, to the top court in such a “careless and cavalier manner”.
“He could have appeared through videoconferencing without compromising anything,” the Bench remarked. Mr. Mehta noted that no one can appear in-person at the Supreme Court without the permission of the Registrar of the court. “Next time we will ensure that he is not physically present,” the law officers assured the court. Justice Datta went on to recuse himself from hearing the case. Malik was later seen walking to a waiting prison vehicle, clutching a file and ringed by gun-toting security personnel.
On Friday, prison authorities said officials of Central Jail No. 7 (Tihar) had taken Malik to the Supreme Court and that DIG (Prisons-Headquarters) Rajiv Singh would conduct an inquiry and submit a report to the Director General (Prisons) within three days fixing responsibility.
Published - July 23, 2023 01:05 am IST
