With the government indicating that it would look into allegations of favouritism by Tihar jail authorities, the prison officials today denied facilitating the hospital visits of Vikas Yadav, convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case, and said they were merely obeying orders.
"Totally, no favouritism to these convicts in this case. Whatsoever has been done is as per the provisions of the jail manual and as per the directions of the court," Tihar jail spokesperson Sunil Gupta said.
He added if the jail authorities did not obey the court orders, they would be hauled up by the courts or even contempt proceedings could be initiated against the jail staff.
Union law minister M Veerappa Moily today said the government will look into the allegations of 'favouritism' by Nitish's mother Neelam Katara following an RTI reply that revealed that Yadav had been out of Tihar jail as many as 66 times since his conviction by a trial court in 2008.
Reacting to the RTI disclosure, Katara said, "Instead of specifying the disease or reasons for which he had to go out, the RTI reply simply said he went out to DDU six times and the rest 60 times to AIIMS. This has to be investigated".
She also accused the jail authorities of illegally shifting Yadav, son of former MP DP Yadav, from the prison cell meant for the convicts to the cell meant for the undertrials.
