New Delhi: In order to understand and form
an opinion about the "trauma and torture" of people in places
like jails, a parliamentary delegation will visit the Tihar
Prisons here on Thursday and meet the inmates.
Sources said about 13 Members of Parliament will visit
the Tihar Prisons in order to interact with the prisoners and
elicit their experiences and responses on torture and other
such problems faced by them.
The interaction is being initiated as the government is
considering an Anti-Torture Law in order to bring down the
incidents of custodial death and violence that are being
reported from all parts of the country.
The draft Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 prepared by
the Union Ministry of Home Affairs Home Affairs, is at
present under discussion in Parliament.
This bill will make it a punishable offence if anybody
tortures another on the ground of his/her race, religion,
place of birth, residence, language, caste and community,
including inflicting mental torture.
The delegation will meet a selected lot of prisoners from
all the ten prisons in the Tihar complex which will include
both male and female inmates.
As per the National Human Rights Commission, custodial
violence and custodial deaths are widespread in the country.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 18:55