Video conferencing facility suspended after ‘large scale violence’ in Tihar: Pinjra Tod member to Delhi HC

Pinjra Tod member Natasha Narwal on Wednesday alleged before the Delhi High Court that "large scale violence" took place in Jail No. 6 following which video conferencing facilities had been suspended for the inmates, BarandBench.com has reported.

Narwal is presently in judicial custody in connection with cases registered for Delhi riots.

The statement was made before a single Judge Bench of Justice C Hari Shankar who was hearing Natasha Narwal's petition seeking a direction to the Tihar Jail authorities to allow her access to her counsel by way of video conferencing.

Counsel for Narwal, Advocate Adit Pujari stated that as per the information received by him, Jail number 6 in Tihar Jail, where Narwal was in custody, was under a complete lockdown following incidents of violence there on June 16. The video conferencing facilities were thus not being allowed, it was said.

It was also pointed out that in terms of the Delhi Prison Rules, apart from legal assistance, Narwal was also entitled to speak to her family for 5 minutes every day.

In response, Standing Counsel Rahul Mehra stated that he had "instructions to the contrary" from the Director General (Prisons).

It was explained that the inmates were not being able to contact their family etc through video conferencing on account of connectivity issues in Jail and the same were being resolved.Mehra added that he would file a status report in the matter.

As far as the Narwal's grievance of not being able to speak to her family was concerned, Standing Counsel Mehra stated that we would look into it.

The matter would be heard next on June 29.