It is the biggest prison of South East Asia. Although Tihar jail has a sanctioned capacity of 5,648 prisoners, more than 13,000 are lodged here. Many of these are high profile prisoners - from former IG (Prisons, Haryana) RK Sharma, accused in the Shivani murder case, to Vikas Yadav, accused in the Nitish Katara murder case.
As the Capital awaits the arrival of Abu Salem, currently lodged in Mumbai, HT caught up with an undertrial (now acquitted from the courts), who was lodged in Jail Number 1 in Tihar for about two months to find what life for VIP prisoners is like inside Tihar. This is his account:
Convicts rule Tihar
"The first day I entered Tihar, I was in a state of shock. I had visited jails in Rajasthan and Punjab along with friends, but those jails were nothing like this one. I could hardly sleep the first night. No sooner had the clock struck five, I was woken up and put in line to clean toilets. When I saw the state of the toilets just couldn't do anything except want to puke.
The convicts, who are dressed in pure white clothes, are the guys who actually rule the jails. One convict came to me and told me that for a certain sum of money, I could have my way and wouldn't have to do this job while I was here. The price? Rs 10,000 a month to live a cool life without cleaning toilets or having to stand in line for food etc. I agreed. But because I knew another high profile undertrial who intervened on my behalf, I had to pay a discounted rate of only Rs 4,000 to a low ranked prison official. The only problem was that, when his superior came to know that I had paid, he too wanted his share. Once again, my friend intervened and I was saved from paying up.
VIP undertrials and convicts stay in rooms, which have no lock-up inside the jail premises. There are about four such rooms and each room has a television. They have all the luxuries in life, including a separate kitchen, a refrigerator, chef and servants. Outside their room is a badminton court where they can play any time they like.
For the non VIPs, however, conditions at Tihar are such that the greasy - and greedy - palms of the jail officials made life tough for me. They could see that I could afford to pay, and they wanted more. My parents were taken for a ride and my two-month stay in the jail cost them a little more than Rs one lakh.
Coming to food. One gets one subzi, a dal and four Pots at each meal. Paneer and milk are on the diet chart, but nobody gets these. Jail officials use rotten vegetables and the Pots are inedible. But here again, if you're willing to pay, you're OK; you can eat as much as you want. But if you can't afford to pay, you might not even get food, forget about rotten stuff. The tea is so watery at Tihar; I used to buy milk from the canteen and get my own tea made from the canteen guy.
In Tihar, you can buy whatever you want - even services of the poorer inmates to do menial jobs. I had an illegal Bangladeshi national for odd jobs. And believe me there's a mad rush among people to do such jobs.
Then, there was an Australian inmate who used to buy yeast. With this, we would fill a five-litre mineral water bottle with bananas or apply, add some sugar and after nine or 10 days, would have our own booze.
Now, inmates are allowed only two visits a week. But by paying off officials, my parents used to come three times in the week. For every visit they used to buy a Rs 200 coupon and give it to me. I used to transfer it on my swipe card. Through this swipe card, I could buy goods from the canteen. Things aren't cheap: a single Gold Flake cigarette costs Rs 50, and a joint of charas Rs 30. The problem was with lighting the cigarette, as matchboxes aren't allowed in the premises. We used to burn a piece of cloth by putting it on a glowing bulb and use this to light our cigarettes.
The prime place to stay in Tihar is the 'chandukhana'. This is one of the sections in Jail Number One, which has several lock-ups within the premises. There are three large dormitories, which are further compartmentalised into three sections. One of these sections is known as the 'chandukhana' where the privileged lot stay. To gain entry here, you must have the approval of an existing inmate, and pay anything between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000 (depending on how much the Tihar officials think you can afford) for the privilege. When I was in Tihar, there were only 10 men here, compared to over 500 prisoners in the other sections.
Prison routine falls into a predictable pattern. From 6 am to 12 noon, we could walk in the compound to get some fresh air. Between 4 pm and 6 pm, one could again come out of the lock-up. People who paid up were free to roam around inside the jail premises. For me, the best thing about Tihar was the library I read a lot and played basketball to kill time.
The most important thing to buy at Tihar is transportation to courts. There's a common bus. It will not stop on the way, whatever the provocation. This can be dangerous. People who get convicted by courts, can attack you with blades on the way back. This way, another case gets registered against them and they get to stay on as undertrials. The catch? Undertrials don't have to work, while convicts have to.
If you're willing to pay, you get to go to the courts in a special high-rise bus. It's not cheap. One has to pay Rs 10,000 per month. I used to travel along with Kashmiri terrorists who were involved in the Lajpat Nagar blasts. They used to mind their own business. They were well dressed too. The privilege extends to your time in the courts as well where you have the luxury of staying in a special lock-up away from other undertrials. For an additional charge, you can also get home-cooked food in the court lock-ups.
My two-month stay in Tihar changed my perspective on life. Corruption prevails at every level, from top to bottom. Jail officials realise that people like me can't live in hell, and are willing to pay for better standards. For poorer people such luxuries can be availed at a much lower cost. The motto of the jail staff is to extract as much as it can - perhaps the only exception is the Tamil Nadu police, posted there for security.
The day I was released, I got a stern statutory warning: "Don't talk about this to anyone or else..." But I am still doing it as it may help improve the conditions of other inmates.
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