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Journalism of Courage
Prisoners ran riot inside Chowdhury Charan Singh Jail in Meerut Wednesday,leaving at least 122 prisoners and 34 prison and police officials injured,more than 20 seriously.
The jail authorities claimed the violence was planned by supporters of Ajay alias Bade,an undertrial,who had been booked for beating up Zubair,a numberdar or senior prisoner,who had caught him taking a lighter inside.
We registered a case against Ajay and shifted him along with three others to the high security ward on Tuesday, said Jail Superintendent SHM Rizwi.
This,Rizwi added,did not go down well with Ajays gangmen. In order to put pressure on the administration members of the gang resorted to violence in the morning and started attacking the numberdars first. They also beat up fellow prisoners, Rizwi said. They wanted to create pressure on us so that we allow them to carry whatever items they want inside the jail. This was also an attempt to stop us from frisking them.
The injured prisoners,however,blamed the jail staff for the violence. The jail officials demand money whenever our family members come to meet us. The people who started the violence were not even touched and innocent ones like us have been beaten up by the officials, said Riyaz,25,an undertrial.
District Magistrate Vikas Gotalwal said he had ordered a probe to find out what caused the violence. It is not clear what started the violence but we have ordered a magisterial inquiry, he said. The rioting prisoners burnt the office of a deputy jailor but none escaped,he added. The jail authorities later called in Rapid Action Force to restore order.
With ENS Lucknow
