As per the officials on Thursday, over 20 prisoners in Tihar jail inflicted injuries on themselves to avoid prison staff from carrying out searches for recovering mobile phones.
The incident took place in one of the wards of central jail number 8/9 on Wednesday. The prisoners were referred to DDU hospital.
A search was carried out at 5.30 pm on Wednesday based on information regarding mobile phone usage in that particular ward, according to the officials, and one keypad phone and one improvised weapon were found.
The people watching the jail CCTV control centre then spotted strange inmate activity in the barracks where the recovery was made. One SIM card and an improvised cellphone charger were recovered after additional investigation and interrogation of the prisoners, according to a senior jail official.
Another prisoner confessed to having a phone while being questioned, and he was requested to turn it over. He was accompanied by the personnel as he took the phone from the control room to the barracks.
The officer claimed that when he arrived in the barrack, fellow prisoners there encouraged him not to turn over the mobile to the jail authorities.
In order to stop the personnel from finding the hidden mobile phone from the barrack, the other prisoners allegedly started abusing the jail officials and over 20 of them injured themselves.
One of the convicts pulled out his phone during the disturbance and dialled his family, who then called the police control room (PCR) to report that the inmates had been beaten by the jail staff inside the jails, according to the official.
The additional workers at the control room rushed into action right away and calmed the situation. Four of the injured inmates were sent to DDU hospital due to significant wounds they got while inflicting self-injuries, the official said. The injured inmates were treated for their self-inflicted injuries within the jail dispensary.
According to them, the mobile was found at 10:30 p.m.
According to the officials, the method convicts employ to intimidate the jail staff by inflicting self-injuries has been thoroughly documented on CCTV.
At the police station in Hari Nagar, a complaint on the occurrence has been made. They stated that additional measures are being taken against the prisoners in accordance with Delhi Prison standards.
(With inputs from PTI)
