Tihar inspection judge replaced

In a reshuffle, judicial authorities have replaced the inspecting trial court judges for Tihar Jail’s seven sub-jails, including Brijesh Kumar Garg who visited sub-jail four on June 30 to scrutinise the prison’s condition.

In a reshuffle, judicial authorities have replaced the inspecting trial court judges for Tihar Jail’s seven sub-jails, including Brijesh Kumar Garg who visited sub-jail four on June 30 to scrutinise the prison’s condition.

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Garg, whose inspection brought out irregularities related to preferential treatment given to high-profile inmates, had allowed a city-based lawyer to accompany him during the visit allegedly against norms. This was first reported by HT on July 6. Violating the norms, the lawyer had not identified himself while marking his entry or exit in the jail’s visitors’ log.

The jail’s authorities had also communicated to judicial authorities about the fact that Garg visited the sub-jail in the company of the lawyer. The lawyer also allegedly interacted with a high-profile under-trial, who was arrested in February on bribery charges by the CBI.

Despite HT’s attempts to contact Garg, both via telephone calls and a text message, he was unavailable for comments. Sources say, Garg had earlier written to his superiors, expressing his desire to not continue as an inspecting judge.
According to a communication received by the jail authorities, out of Tihar’s 10 sub-jails, seven will have new inspecting trial court judges while three other sub-jails will be supervised by inspecting judges whose charges have been changed, according to a source. “This is a rare instance when the charges of all of Tihar’s 10 sub-jails have been changed,” said the source.

Garg was part of a group of judges who were assigned the task of inspecting prison conditions in each of Tihar’s 10 sub-jails. The inspecting judges visit the jail assigned to them every alternate month and submit their report to the city’s chief district & sessions court and the Delhi High Court’s registrar general.

Acting on the findings of an internal probe over allegations of preferential treatment given to high-profile prisoners, Tihar authorities had suspended three officials — two assistant superintendents and a head warder. The jail authorities also recommended to the ministry of home affairs disciplinary action against the sub-jail’s former superintendent, SC Bharadwaj.