Over 370 foreign prisoners, including 54 women, in Delhi jails: Authorities to Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court was informed that 378 foreign prisoners, including 54 women, were lodged in Delhi prisons and most of them were facing prosecution in drug cases in which bail was a rarity.

Regarding the status of bail, the jail authorities said out of 54 foreign women inmates in Tihar and Mandoli jails, 20 had already applied for the relief and the applications were pending in courts, pleas of seven had been rejected and 13 prisoners had not applied.

In a status report filed by the director general of prisons, Tihar Jail, it was stated that the details of status of bail pleas of remaining 14 foreign women prisoners were not available with the jail department.

The report was filed before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar and the matter would be taken up for hearing on August 2.

The court, while hearing a PIL related to the issue of denial of bail and proper phone call facility to foreign women inmates arrested in drug cases and lodged in the Tihar Jail, had earlier sought for a status report from the authorities.

Regarding foreign men prisoners, the report said as of date 324 of them were lodged in Delhi prisons and as per the available information, 57 bail applications were filed in the courts out of which 43 had been disposed of.

"Most of the foreign prisoners are facing trial in cases under the NDPS Act which is a special act with stringent provisions and bail is a rarity," it said.

The report, filed in the court on July 24, also said that most of the foreign prisoners had engaged private counsel and bail applications were directly filed by them and not routed through the office of the jail superintendent concerned due to which complete details on status of their bail pleas and orders were not readily available on jail record.

The court had earlier asked the prison authorities here to give the details of all the foreign inmates lodged in the Tihar Jail, the status of their bail pleas, and the orders passed on them.

The court had extended the ambit of the plea to all the foreign inmates, not just women, on the request of amicus curiae Ajay Verma.

The bench had taken up the issue after receiving a letter from the foreign women inmates narrating their plight.

The foreign women had claimed that their Indian counterparts, arrested in similar crimes, had been granted bail, but they were not.

They alleged that they were not being granted bail by the trial courts on the sole ground that they, being foreigners, would abscond or go abroad if the relief was granted to them.

They were also aggrieved by the few minutes they are allotted twice every month to call their family and that too by using a calling card.

The women claimed that while they get two phone calls of five minutes every month, their Indian counterparts got to make a phone call of five minutes every day.

They sought that they be allowed one phone call per week.