In conversation with Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury at HLF 2020
Sunil Gupta has witnessed 8 hangings and all of them belonged to poor families," said Sunetra Choudhury
"If you steal Rs 1,000, the hawaldar will beat the shit out of you and lock you up in a dungeon with no bulb or ventilation. If you steal Rs 55,000 crore, then you get to stay in a 40-ft cell which has four split units, internet, fax, mobile phones and a staff of 10 to clean your shoes and cook your food," said Sunetra Choudhury, journalist, anchor and a writer
Hyderabad: 'Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer' opens up a closed world which cannot be seen without the kind of description by Sunil Gupta. He has ably teamed up with Sunetra Choudhury to bring it all into public domain. What happens inside India's prisons is not really known to many. The authors are of the opinion that it is the poor who suffers the most due to a faulty criminal injustice system.
Sunetra Choudhury co-author said, " There are many prisoners who are poor and they are so vulnerable that they cannot defend themselves. There are people who cannot even afford a bail amount of Rs 500. Sunil Gupta has witnessed 8 hangings and all of them belonged to poor families."
Did 'Ram Singh' committed suicide?
Sunil Gupta talked about the prime accuse 'Ram Singh' who was reported of committing suicide while he was within the jail. The book 'Black Current' talks about the fact which he believes that it was not a suicide. Talking about the incident Sunil Gupta, former jailer of Tihar Jail said, "The day when Ram Singh came to the jail around 8 pm, there was an identification test that was conducted in those hours. This is against the law, as the test can be done only in the morning hours. However, the victims (Nirbhaya) friend agreed to come in the evening hours for the test."
After the test which came out to be positive, he was sent to the cell and committed suicide after a couple of days. Sunil got a doubt about Ram Singh's suicide. The roof was around 12ft above and Ram Singh was almost 5 and half feet. When asked his fellow prisoners, they said, they are not aware of this as they were sleeping. During the inquiry of his suicide, the investigative team took his viscera samples and found that he had consumed alcohol the previous day. Sunil further said, "There were many clues that he has not done a suicide but no one would listen to it because of his crime."
How Charles Sobhraj tried to help Sunil Gupta
Sunil Gupta during the talk also talked about how the notorious cheat Charles Sobhraj had asked if he needed any financial help after he got suspended from his job.
"Sobhraj was one of the jovial person even when he was in the jail. But the same cannot be said for the majority of people inside."
Davinder Singh's case
Sunetra further highlighted the role of accused police officer Davinder Singh in incriminating Afzal Guru. She said, "Afzal Guru had named Davinder Singh in his letter saying that he was guilty of providing the car in parliament attack, as he was under the pressure of Davinder. If we ask question of why Afzal Guru did this, one will be labelled as a sympathizer."
Life in jail, a hell for the poor
During the discussion, Sunetra Choudhury and Sunil Gupta also talked about some worse incidents that happened to the prisoners. The most affected are the ones who cannot afford to get their bail to be done and they are the ones who are hanged later. They said, "If you have money, you can live a 5-star life but if you don't then you have to work for fellow prisoners."
Stating on this Sunil said that when an accused is hanged, the main thing that matters is his weight. If he is a healthy man he would die then and then but if he is skinny then they will still be alive for around two hours and later will be made sure that they are dead.
