According to sources, the NHRC has sent letters to the Delhi government and the director general of prisons over accusations that a prisoner was sexually attacked in Tihar Jail by other prisoners. They said that the National Human Rights Commission had also made the decision to send a team to the scene to conduct an investigation.
The NHRC said in a statement that it had taken suo motu note of media allegations published on December 30 alleging that a 22-year-old prisoner had been sexually abused in Tihar Jail by other convicts. According to reports, the prisoner is receiving medical care, it stated. If the media claims are accurate, they violate the victim’s right to life and dignity.
The commission has requested a thorough report on the situation within four weeks, according to the letters sent to the director general of Prisons and the chief secretary of Delhi. According to the statement, the report should contain the victim’s current health status, the actions taken against the at-fault police and prisoners, as well as the procedures recommended to be made to prevent similar situations from happening again.
The NHRC claimed it had previously issued a number of recommendations, advisories, and guidelines to enhance various aspects of prison administration, but that ‘it appears that there has been no perceptible change in the living conditions of the inmates in Tihar Jail since, intermittently, incidents of various types of their human rights violations, including harassment, torture, and sexual abuse, are being reported and complained about’.
The statement said, ‘The state, as the custodian of the inmates in the prisons, is responsible for their safety and security as they too have a right to human rights, including the right to dignity granted by the Constitution’.
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