Why India’s ‘inhuman’ jails may kill off hopes of Vijay Mallya’s extradition

Source – moneycontrol.com

When officials of India’s home ministry met with their counterparts from the United Kingdom on Tuesday, it was in the wake of a recent London court order that could pose a barrier to India’s efforts to extradite erstwhile liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

The Westminster Magistrate’s court in London, which is currently handling Mallya’s case, recently turned down a request from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to extradite bookie Sanjeev Chawla. The reason cited for the refusal was “unsafe, inhuman and degrading” conditions in Delhi’s Tihar jail, NDTV reported.

“I am not satisfied that there is an effective system of protection against torture in the receiving state. While the Supreme Court in India has raised concerns about prison conditions, the court has found little has changed in practice and overcrowding remains a problem. Evidence suggests… monitoring systems are not effective in practice,” said District Judge Rebecca Crane, according to the report.

Crane also noted that there were “strong grounds for believing that Chawla would be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the Tihar prison complex, due to the overcrowding, lack of medical provision, risk of being subjected to torture and violence either from other inmates or prison staff which is endemic in Tihar.”

Chawla’s lawyer presented a human rights expert’s evidence on the conditions at Indian jails. In his submission to the court, Dr Alan Mitchell, who is a member of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, pointed out that India had not ratified the United Nations convention against improper treatment of inmates.

Two of Mitchell’s reports were submitted to the court, one prepared in November last year and the other in February this year. The reports were based on his visits to Indian jails but he could only visit a jail in Alipore (Kolkata) and not Tihar, since he wasn’t given permission.

Mitchell noted that the Tihar jail was 227 percent overcrowded, which in itself could be considered a risk to human rights being upheld. He also referenced a report which suggested that torture remained “endemic and institutionalised” in Indian prisons and there were an “alarming number of deaths in custody, particularly unnatural deaths.”

Incidentally, Mallya has also been reported as having engaged Mitchell for his case. The disgraced businessman had earlier raised the issue of conditions at Indian jails as one of the key points against his extradition.

According to a report by Times of India on August 14, the Centre had sent a report to the London court explaining the living and security conditions at Arthur Road jail, where it intends to house Mallya if and when he is brought back. The report also contained pictures of Barrack 12 at Arthur Road jail, which was earlier used to house 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab.

The TOI report also said that the Arthur Road jail, which was built in 1925, has an official capacity of 804 inmates but it currently houses more than 2,500.

Kiren Rijiju, India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, met with his British counterpart Brandon Lewis on Tuesday and pushed for 13 extraditions in all, including those of IPL founder Lalit Modi, the above-mentioned bookie Sanjeev Chawla, and the ‘King of Good Times’.