High Court directs DGP (Prisons) to submit affidavit on ‘selfie’ by Patiala jail inmate

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, December 22

Taking cognisance of allegations regarding an accused breaking the virtual walls of Patiala Central Jail by circulating a self-clicked photograph with mobile handset on social media, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for an affidavit by the Director General of Police (Prisons).

The direction by Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul of the high court, casting the spotlight on the alleged use of social media by jail inmates, came on a petition filed against the state of Punjab and the respondents by an accused seeking regular bail. The plea has its genesis in a murder case registered under 302 of the IPC at the Sadar police station in Nabha in November 2020.

Appearing before the Bench, counsel for complainant Saurav Bhatia placed on record self-clicked photographs of the petitioner from inside the jail, where he was lodged. The counsel submitted that the petitioner, lodged in the Patiala Central Jail, had been blatantly and unabashedly circulating his photographs on social media. Bhatia, in particular, drew the court’s attention to one of the photographs, where the petitioner, along with other undertrials, could be seen with a number of mobile handsets.

Taking up the matter, Justice Kaul asserted the submissions made by the counsel for the complainant reflected a sorry state of affairs prevailing inside the jails in Punjab, in case these had any grain of truth in them.

Justice Kaul also directed the handing over of the photographs’ copy to the state counsel before fixing the case for further hearing immediately after the reopening of the high court following a winter break. “Let a detailed affidavit of the DGP (Prisons), Punjab, be filed on or before the next date of hearing with respect to the submissions made by the counsel for the complainant,” Justice Kaul asserted, before parting with the case.

The high court in at least two cases has already rapped the authorities concerned for failure to check the use of cellphones by jail inmates. Apparently unimpressed by the measures proposed and initiated to place mobile phones out of jail inmates’ coverage area, another Bench of the high court had earlier this month called upon the Punjab Engineering College’s director to depute an expert in the field of electronics and communications to assist the court.

In another matter, the high court had taken note of more than 43,000 calls made from two cellphones from the Ferozepur Central Jail before asserting that every attempt was being made to help officials, who provided shelter to drug smugglers in prison and whose involvement was writ large in the matter.