From Jantar Mantar to separate cells in Tihar Jail.
Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka — two top leaders of India’s Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party — were lodged in separate cells on Tuesday at Asia’s biggest prison under heavy security, sources said.
“The newly arrived jailbirds have been kept in separate cells to ensure their safety and prevent potential friction, attacks, or collusion with the general prison population. They will be provided with newspapers and TV inside their cell,” said a prison
official.
According to him, they were not being treated any differently from other undertrials. “There is no special treatment meted out to them and they are being provided the same facilities made available to others. They will have to make do with dal, roti
and sabzi, sleep on the floor and have been provided only with blankets.”
A Delhi magistrate ordered Ranka and Das in five days’ judicial custody for breaching Jantar Mantar, denotified as a protest zone on Monday.
The transition from street politics to jail cells follows an escalation in the protests demanding electoral reforms and the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter list irregularities.
While many inmates follow prison rules, Tihar has periodically reported clashes, fights and attacks involving undertrials using improvised or sharp objects inside the jail.
“Cops have been deployed outside their cells round the clock to monitor, as a lot of things like bladebaazi could take place. Even fellow undertrials issue threats and try
to extort money from newly arrived inmates,” the jail official said.
The CJP leaders’ cells, he said, have an attached bathroom and their movements have been restricted for their own safety.
A prison warden said both Das and Ranka were well-behaved. “They are young and educated people and appear to be very spirited. They interacted with some jail officials when they were brought in. They told us that they were fighting to save democracy,” he said.
In Tihar, prisoners wake up at 5am, followed by a roll call at 6am. Breakfast is at 7am. Lunch is served between 11am and noon, after which some time is allotted for meeting visitors. Dinner is served early at 6.30pm and the inmates are locked again at 7pm after the mandatory head count.
“After the normal roll call in the morning, the prisoners wait in queue for their breakfasts — two bread slices and tea. On some days they are also provided with puri sabzi for breakfast,” the official said.
In the morning and evening, both Ranka and Das will be allowed to take a stroll around their ward in the presence of cops, the official said.
“Prisoners are typically allowed out of their barracks or cells in the morning to complete chores, bathe and take walks or exercise within designated open yards under the supervision of wardens,” he said. There is not much time between breakfast and lunch as inmates have to collect their meal (rice, roti, dal and one dry vegetable) by 11am.
The jail houses over 14,000 prisoners, three-fourths of them undertrials.
A former superintendent of Tihar recounted how in August 2011 Anna Hazare was arrested by the UPA government and sent to the jail during the nationwide India Against Corruption movement.
Anna’s arrest had sparked massive nationwide demonstrations, candlelit marches, and crowds gathering outside Tihar. The government was then forced to release Anna and he walked out of jail. Thousands of supporters followed Anna to the Ramlila Maidan here, where he launched a 15-day hunger strike that heralded the fall of the Manmohan Singh government in 2014.