Tihar convicts hit jackpot in job drive

Jagmohan Lal (name changed), a postgraduate diploma-holder in sales and marketing with 25-year experience, prayed one more time while waiting for his turn to be interviewed on Friday morning. Abhishek Sharan reports.

Jagmohan Lal (name changed), a postgraduate diploma-holder in sales and marketing with 25-year experience, prayed one more time while waiting for his turn to be interviewed on Friday morning.

HT Image

Lal was among 24 convicts of the Tihar Jail who went through campus placements on the premises sub-jail number three. As many as 19 walked out with job offers. Lal was among one of them.

"I have a job offer of Rs 45, 000 per month from a private firm for the position of a business development manager. I got two more offers," Lal, convicted for cheating, told jail officials.

This was the fifth such placement drive, which have in all fetched jobs for 338 inmates till now.

Other convicts, who participated in the exercise on Friday, got offers for jobs that ranged from those of a data entry operator, welder, sales executive and driver. The salaries offered were in the bracket of Rs 8,000 to Rs 45,000, said Tihar spokesperson Sunil Gupta.

As many as 13 private firms participated in the placement drive on the request of the Tihar authorities. The eligibility criteria for the candidates included a record of good behaviour, their expected release in six months and acquiring of a vocational skill in the prison, said Gupta.

Chandra Kumar (name changed), 42, a robbery convict, who is lodged for the past six years in the prison, landed a job as a welder for a salary of Rs 45,000 per month.