Tihar inmate beaten to death with cricket bat, four arrested

Four days after a 33-year-old inmate was allegedly beaten to death inside Tihar jail by four other inmates, an investigation by the Delhi Police revealed that a cricket bat was used in the assault. The four men have been arrested and police are seeking production warrants to question them.

DCP (west) Urvija Goel said the deceased was identified as Srikant alias Appu, a resident of Ashok Vihar. “We have registered an FIR and our initial investigation has revealed that the brawl started between Srikant and other inmates over bullying. Further investigations are on.”

The complainant Lalit, who is a warden in Central jail no 2, told the police that he and his colleague, Praveen, saw the four accused use a cricket bat to thrash the deceased.

“Lalit told the police in his complaint that at around 6 am, they opened all the barracks and were sitting in the guard room. At around 7 am, they heard some noise which was coming from barrack no 4 and they immediately rushed. They found that four inmates of barrack no 6 – Kishan Shresth, Kunal, Akash and Arun were beating Srikant inside barrack no 4 with a cricket bat. They were threatening to kill him and then blood was oozing out from Arun’s head. They took Arun to the jail dispensary and also tried to take Srikant, but he refused to come after saying that he would take rest in his room. The matter was informed to the senior officer at around 9 am and then Srikant informed that he was in pain. He was first taken to a jail dispensary from where he was referred to Safdarjung hospital where he was declared brought dead,” a senior police officer said.

Police found in their investigation that Srikant hit Arun with a sharp-edged weapon and the other accused hit him with a cricket bat.

DG (Tihar jail) Sandeep Goel said, “The Tihar jail administration has also initiated an inquiry into the incident. Appu was in jail since 2015 after being arrested in a case of murder and cases of theft.”