The five top corporate bigwigs arrested in connection with the 2G telecom scam had their first taste of prison rules when the request of one of them to be lodged in Jail No. 1 of Tihar,like former minister A Raja,was rejected. Vinod Goenka,the managing director of DB Realty,wanted to be moved there. His request was summarily turned down, Director-General Neeraj Kumar said. They must be imagining that Jail No. 1 is some paradise. They think it is different. But they will stay put where they are. Nobody is moving anywhere. This is a prison. As per popular perception,Jail No.1,a high-security prison where many VIPs are lodged,is a special jail. Thats all rubbish, Kumar said. So,till April 26,when the Delhi High Court next takes up their bail pleas,the five are likely to spend their days and nights in two cells measuring 12 ft by 10 ft in Ward No. 4 of Jail No. 3,a high-security prison the same as Wednesday night. They got four blankets,one durrie and a few bedsheets each,but no beds,and ate the usual prison fare. An attached toilet will be a relief,and perhaps the fan whirring above,but the only window that lets light into the ward,which they can never leave,is small and located high up. The situation of two in one cell and three in the other may be a little crowded,but Kumar is clear again. Sanjay Chandra,the Managing Director of Unitech; Vinod Goenka,the Swan Telecom Director; and Gautam Doshi,Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara,the three top executives of Dhirubhai Ambani Group,cannot expect more space because Tihar is overcrowded. On Thursday,the total number of prisoners in the nine jails inside the Tihar prison complex stood at 11,696. While family members of the five men came to meet them today morning,they were not allowed in and were asked to follow due procedure. As per the new Tihar mulakati policy,only close family members whose names have been submitted by the accused can visit them in prison and appointments have to be made in advance. The only special thing done for high-security prisoners is protection from hardened criminals. They are liable to be assaulted for extortion, a Tihar official said. Ward No. 4 has 20 such cells where such prisoners are kept. However,even if they dont share the same jail as Raja,the five bigwigs can take heart from a few details. When Raja was sent to Tihar in February,he too moved to a bare,constricted space,ventilated by just a grated iron aperture near the ceiling and with no privacy because of the grated iron doors. But within a week of his arrival,he had started to make the confined space his home. It began with food. He requested for dosa and idlis and sambhar and rasam to be on the prison canteen menu,and the authorities agreed. So he can get dosas and idlis from home everyday,as per court order,but not sambhar and rasam as per a policy banning curried items due to security reasons. However,all four items are allowed on the canteen menu. At least the others are now getting to eat South Indian delicacies due to him, said a prison official. Two months into his prison life,Raja has also settled into a routine. He watches Tamil television channels,eats the food he has always been used to,and reads. Delhi HC defers hearing on 2G bigwigs bailNEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has deferred a hearing on bail pleas of five business executives held in the 2G telecom scandal yesterday. The court will resume its hearing on April 26 on whether to grant the bail.
