NEW DELHI: Karamjit Singh, who is facing charges of trying to assassinate the late Rajiv Gandhi at Raj Ghat on October 2, 1986, has appealed to the Supreme Court to end his six-year-long solitary confinement in Tihar jail.

Ina petition, counsel for the prisoner Dr .B.L. Wadehra said that his client had been kept in solitary confinement since he was arrested, and was being denied the fundamental rights available to any prisoner,

Citing Sections 73 and 74 of the Indian Penal Code, the counsel said that his client was an under trial prisoner and only convicts awarded rigorous imprisonment could be kept in solitary confinement, that too for not more than four hours a day, and in full view of other prisoners,

Also the convict awarded solitary confinement could not be prevented access with other prisoners while eating.

All these rules had been violated in the case of his client, the counsel pleaded. Karamjit Singh was arrested on Gandhi Jayanti day as he fired shots at the late Prime Minister from his hideout in shrubbery overlooking the Gandhi Samadhi in Raj Ghat.

Since then he has been lodged in Tihar jail as an under trial,

The jail authorities were keeping the prisoner in a 12’x 9’ cell, in the exclusive custody and round-the clock observation of a fully-armed Tamil Nadu Special Police (TNSP) contingent headed by a Sub-Inspector, the petition said.

The prisoner was kept in a solitary cell round-the-clock for almost a month, from November 26,198610 December 24,1987 and from December 1987 to December 19,1988 the petitioner was taken out of the solitary confinement for a mere two hours a day, for a walk ina7 x7 yard courtyard, the petition stated.

From December 20,1988 to August 10,1092, the prisoner was being taken out for three hours a day, for two hours in the morning and an hour in the evening, the petition said.

From August 11,1992 the prisoner was being taken out of the solitary confinement for four hours a day-for two hours in the morning and for a similar period in the evening.

During his six-year solitary confinement, the prisoner had not been allowed to mingle with, to talk, or have his food with other prisoners lodged in the same jail. He was not even allowed to meet with the designated sessions judge when the latter visited the jail, the petition said.

Though Karamjit Singh was lodged in the Tihar jail, the authorities of the goal had no access to the prisoner who was under the direct control and custody of the TNSP, which guarded with loaded and drawn weapons round the-clock, the petition said.

Karamjit Singh had not also been allowed to obtain food on his own, clothes and toiletry items, despite clear instructions in this regard in Section 31 of the Prisons Act, the petition pleaded.

It requested the court 0 set aside the order the jail authorities and TNSP imposing solitary confinement on the prisoner,

Article extracted from this publication >> October 9, 1992