india

Updated: Nov 07, 2019 05:42 IST

On Saturday, when clashes between the police and lawyers led to a group of lawyers barging inside the Tis Hazari court’s so-called lock-up area, the police team was worried about the high-risk prisoners among the 84 men and women in it, some of who had collapsed because of smoke.

The lock-up area is where prisoners wait after being ferried from jails for their cases to be heard.

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Sengar was among the prisoners waiting inside the lock-up for his court hearing on Saturday. Sengar has been arrested for the alleged rape of an a 17-year-old girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh.

A police officer, who was in the lock-up area that afternoon, said on condition of anonymity that apart from Sengar, there were two other high-risk prisoners. As the phrase denotes, these are prisoners who must be monitored so that they are not attacked or do not escape.

Saturday’s clashes, which have subsequently resulted in a continuing stand-off between the police and lawyers, started witha tiff over parking.

“The prisoners in the lock-up included 11 women too. The lawyers barged into the lock-up complex through the main gate. The police team managed to get the lawyers out of the lock-up complex which is in front of the cells where the prisoners were kept. The clashes seen in the videos happened in the lock-up complex. We used chains -- normally used to handcuff prisoners -- to lock the main gate of the complex. Some of the angry lawyers are seen breaking this chain in the videos.”

Another officer who asked not to be named said that the police were particularly concerned about the women prisoners when the angry mob brought two motorcycles to the main gate and set the bikeson fire. According to control room call logs the senior-most officer, deputy commissioner of police Harendra Singhcalled the police control room at 4.16 pm to complain about smoke inside the lock-up where the prisoners were lodged. Six minutes later, at 4.22 pm, Singh informed HQ that many prisoners were complaining of suffocation.

The second officer mentioned added that as a result of the smoke, “at least five prisoners fell unconscious”. The police, this officer said, “ had to choose between risking the prisoner’s lives and their chances of escaping”. Finally, Singh took the keys away from the lock-up guard and opened the lock-up. “By making a human chain, the prisoners were then shifted to another cell where there was no smoke and later to the bus ,” the officer said.

A third officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said that there were 4-5 sewadars who helped police douse the fire. Sewadars are prisoners who, on account of good behaviour, have been appointed by prison authorities to help police ferry/deal with the undertrials.

“There were buckets nearby, there was drinking water too. The sewadars used their clothes and threw the water to douse the fire,” the third officer said.

According to him, the police were most worried about Sengar. “The politician(Sengar) is a known face and there were chances that he could have been attacked. It would have been a problem if he or any other prisoner was attacked. It would have been worst if any prisoner had died of suffocation.”