Lone guard on duty to curb violence

There was allegedly just one guard on duty on Friday morning to deal with a violent clash that broke out between two rival groups at Tihar's sub-jail one in which a robbery was killed. Outnumbered, he alerted others for help later, reports Abhishek Sharan.

There was allegedly just one guard on duty on Friday morning to deal with a violent clash that broke out between two rival groups at Tihar's sub-jail one in which a robbery was killed. Outnumbered, he alerted others for help later.

HT Image

"There was just one guard on duty when the clash erupted among the inmates. He tried to intervene and stop the fighting but was outnumbered by the 25-30 inmates who were involved in it," said a source.

"The guard then rushed out and contacted senior officers to send in more guards and security personnel to contain the situation."

The deceased convict, Javed alias Bhura, 30, was assaulted with blunt weapons, including gardening sticks. He died at Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital hours later.

On May 16, HT had reported on how Tihar prison, which houses nearly 12,113 inmates despite a sanctioned capacity of around half of it, has around 280 posts of warders and head warders vacant.