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Top court seeks report from Centre on Tihar reforms within 3 weeks
The Court called for a report from the Union Home Secretary in three weeks providing an action plan to fill the gaps pointed out by the Delhi Police Commissioner in his report that the Court had forwarded to the Centre last month.
Absence of prompt action by the Centre to install jammers and body scanners at Tihar Central Jail, over a month after a secret report submitted by the Delhi Police chief to the Supreme Court disclosed serious security lapses at the jail, made the apex court remark on Wednesday that a “sorry state of affairs” exists at Tihar. The Court called for a report from the Union Home Secretary in three weeks providing an action plan to fill the gaps pointed out by the Delhi Police Commissioner in his report that the Court had forwarded to the Centre last month.
A bench of Justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and MR Shah said, “We had recently read about deaths and suicides at Tihar Jail. It is a sorry state of affairs. The Centre cannot wait till something happens. You have to do something immediately.”
The directions by the Court came in a pending proceeding related to completion of the Unitech housing projects since the arrest of former Unitech promoters Sanjay and Ajay Chandra facing probe by the Delhi Police, Serious Fraud Investigation Office and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) for cheating homebuyers and laundering their money to offshore shell companies.
On October 6, the Court directed the two brothers to be removed from Tihar Jail and be lodged at separate jails in Mumbai after the ED disclosed their clandestine operations from jail and how Tihar officials were complicit in allowing the accused to launder money, influence witnesses and tamper with the probe.
A confidential report prepared by Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana named the jail officials involved and proposed 23 action points needing immediate consideration of the Centre for enhanced prison management at Tihar. Some of these recommendations related to installation of jammers and body scanners.
According to the ED, the Chandra brothers had access to the jail telephone and communicated to their staff through the mobile phones of certain jail officials. The Court ordered immediate suspension of the jail officials and directed a formal case to be registered.
Appearing for the Delhi Police, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj told the Court that pursuant to directions issued by Court, a FIR was registered on October 12 against 37 people which included 32 jail officials. However, he had no information on whether the named jail officials had been suspended as the jail came under the administration of the Delhi government.
Even on the action taken on Asthana’s report, the ASG said that since the report had multiple recommendations, the same was under consideration of the Union Home Ministry. The Court said, “We find that neither any action plan nor any information has been provided by Centre on the steps taken,” and went on to direct the Union Home Secretary to take necessary steps in this regard and place an affidavit before the Court in three weeks detailing the action taken on the reforms suggested for enhanced prison management.
The Court on October 6 while ordering suspension of the complicit jail officials said, “We direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to respond to the suggestions contained in the report of the Commissioner of Police so that remedial steps can be taken immediately, in terms of the report and in view of violation of the Jail Manual, for enhanced prison management.”
A report prepared by Joint Director, SFIO filed on November 8 was also shared with the Court in a sealed cover on Wednesday detailing the progress of investigation into the web of companies operated by Chandra brothers following the ED revelation of having attached crime proceeds worth ₹7638 crore. The Court directed the latest SFIO report to be shared with ED and directed both agencies to submit updated status reports on investigation against Unitech and the Chandra brothers in four weeks.
The Chandra brothers are facing prosecution since 2015 in separate cases accusing them of cheating homebuyers of 74 Unitech housing projects. A forensic audit ordered by the Supreme Court in 2018 revealed that the former Unitech promoters had siphoned off ₹1749 crore to foreign countries. The audit report prepared by M/s Grant Thornton India concluded that Chandra brothers collected more than ₹14,200 crore from nearly 30,000 homebuyers in their 74 residential projects. It was the claim of Unitech that they had spent close to ₹26,000 crore in the projects, much beyond what they received from homebuyers.
