‘No coordination between DRI, Tihar’

Delhi High Court has observed there is a complete lack of coordination between the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Tihar jail authorities, which makes it easy for an accused facing trial for narcotic offences to escape. Harish V. Nair reports.

Delhi High Court has observed there is a complete lack of coordination between the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Tihar jail authorities, which makes it easy for an accused facing trial for narcotic offences to escape.

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The court expressed its displeasure over the incident where an accused facing trial for trying to smuggle heroin to London remained out of jail for seven weeks after his interim bail expired as both authorities remained in the dark.

“There appears to be a complete lack of coordination between the DRI and the jail authorities. Considering that there are a substantial number of undertrials in the Tihar jail facing prosecution under the NDPS act, this court is concerned about the state of affairs”, Justice S. Muralidhar said.

Satpal Juneja, who allegedly tried to smuggle out heroin concealed in 10 pairs of women’s sandals, was arrested at IGI airport minutes before boarding a British Airways flight to London in 2001.

The interim bail granted to him by a trial court in May last year for undergoing kidney treatment had expired this February 28. His lawyer said that on the same day Juneja moved an application before the trial court seeking a direction to the DRI to arrest him from the hospital but they failed to do so.

But the judge was not convinced and initiated contempt proceedings against him observing “till date he has chosen to remain outside the jail of his own without any order from any authority or court permitting him to do so”.