A court here on Monday has directed Tihar prison authorities to provide inmate telephone call facility for five minutes, thrice a week, to seven accused, including Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, in a case linked to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.
The court, however, pulled up the jail administration for "wrongly" granting the accused who were facing charges under UAPA the call facility on a daily basis for five minutes from the beginning of judicial custody, saying it must set its house in order, follow the rules and maintain consistency without any discrimination.
Khalid, Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Sharjeel Imam, Tasleem Ahmad and Athar Khan had filed applications for the continuation of the daily five minutes phone call facility for conversing with their families that had been revoked in September 2022.
On Monday, another accused Meeran Haider also applied to the restoration of inmate daily phone call facilities. All accused are incarcerated in the case regarding the larger conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots that is being probed by the special cell of Delhi police.
“... Considering the overall situation and the conduct report, the present applications are disposed of with the directions to the jail superintendents concerned to provide the accused or applicants with the said inmate telephone call facility for five minutes for conversing with their family members thrice a week,” Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said.
Other conditions of the facility, according to the prison rule and a circular, had to be followed by the jail superintendents, the judge added.