Vijay (34) is the youngest among the six open jail inmates. Incidentally, only Tularam, who is the eldest among the lot, and he have got jobs as of now.
The jail authorities have entrusted Vijay with managing the Tihar outlet at the Dwarka court complex. He is also looking to get married if a match comes along.
Arrested in 2001
Vijay was arrested with two of his roommates in 2001 for the murder of a 13-year-old boy in Kapashera. The victim was their landlord’s son. Of his two roommates, one jumped bail while the other was acquitted by the High Court.
“One of my roommates was involved with the boy’s elder sister. We feared that he would tell his parents. I had pulled the boy into a room when his head hit a wall and he bled to death. I was just 18 years old at the time and did not understand the implications. All I wanted was to help my roommate,” Vijay recalls.
A second chance at life
The jail authorities, meanwhile, are unsure of the sequence of events themselves.
Taking charge
Vijay’s job is much like an extension of what he was doing inside the jail — handling the Tihar Haat and Tihar Emporium there, besides outlets in other prisons.
A typical day in his life begins with him cleaning the outlet and arranging the stock he brings in. Vijay chooses his mode of transport depending on the quantity of biscuits and snacks he is carrying. If it is a large quantity, he prefers the metro. For smaller quantities, he simply hops onto a DTC bus.
He returns around 5 p.m. after closing the counter, compiling the accounts and checking the stocks.
Vijay had been behind the counter for just two days when The Hindu visited him. By then, he had made daily sales worth ₹2,300 and ₹2,600, which becomes significant because his remuneration depends on the sales.
The bright side
Vijay, meanwhile, is hopeful of making more than the ₹3,800 a month he earned in jail and says he can touch daily sales of ₹5,000. An incentive is the chance to meet his brother, who is a practising lawyer at the Dwarka courts.
“A fixed salary would have led to a casual attitude, which is why we linked his incentives to the sales,” said Director General (Prisons) Sudhir Yadav.
Incidentally, Vijay had completed a hardware networking computer course in jail. However, a continuous change in profiles meant that he didn’t get much practice. He hopes to take up a white collar job some day, but having dropped out of the B.Com programme from IGNOU this remains an area he needs to work on.
According to him, merely allowing inmates to study may not help, but encouraging, or at least not dissuading them, is what is key.
“Jibes from jail staff that I would not become a collector or the President if I continued studying, and that I should spend more time on chores, did not help,” says Vijay as he makes his way to the exit gate, heading out for another day at work.