Police, Tihar authorities pass the buck on gang war deaths

The gang war inside a moving prison van which claimed the lives two inmates took a new twist with Delhi Police and Tihar authorities today trying to pass the buck at each other.
Delhi Police claimed the Tihar authorities had not communicated the nicknames of three undertrial prisoners - including Paras Goldy, who was killed in the gang war yesterday - in the three particular production programmes received by them in June.
Tihar authorities, however, refuted all allegations.
According to the police, the prison authorities are supposed to include nicknames of undertrial prisoners in production programmes, which are sent to the police before inmates are to be transported to and from courts for hearings.

Such information is crucial for ascertaining threat perception by the police unit which is assigned the task of escorting prisoners to and from courts during trials, police claimed.
Tihar authorities, however, maintained that if the prisoner nicknames are mentioned in the warrant, which is forwarded to the jail authorities when an accused is sent to judicial custody, then it is clearly specified in the production programmes.
"If nicknames are not mentioned in warrants, no amendments can be done by the prison authorities on their own," Mukesh Prasad, DIG (Prisons) Tihar, said.