The Tihar Times

Special Correspondent                                                                                        Thursday, 05-05-2011

(The content in italics is author’s work, while the rest are parts of different news articles)

Tihar jail complex, a correctional facility at the Tihar village in Delhi, is South Asia's largest prison, with more than 12,000 inmates. An unprecedented number of well-known persons are currently lodged in Tihar, pending trial and forced into a uniformly spartan lifestyle the jail offers its wards.

The list includes former telecom minister A Raja, his right-hand man R K Chandolia, Commonwealth Games chief organizer Suresh Kalmadi, his close associates Lalit Bhanot and V. K.Verma, mega-rich entrepreneurs such as DB Realty's Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech's Sanjay Chandra, and Reliance Telecom's Gautam Doshi, Surendar Pippara, Hari Nair and several other prominent people.

Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma, both accused in the CWG scams, are seen chatting with R. K. Chandolia quite often but after five more accused in the 2G scam arrived in the jail later, it has become one big group and they all are seen talking to each other in the premises of Ward Number 4 of Jail Number 3 (as Jail Number 2 which has sections from A to G is full with the 2G loot money), the sources added. "Apart from talking to each other, we have not seen them talking to any other prisoner. The new under trials have not made any demands as of now, except for cash counting machines and duplicate note detector “said a jail source.” They all are following the jail schedule. They wake up at 6am, have their breakfast, read newspapers and then chat with each other while counting as much cash as they can per day without talking about the ratio of their shares(they shall settle that outside the courts, to avoid dumping too many cases on the already super fast Indian courts).

Sources say that Mr. Raja, has been the least demanding of prisoners as he’s been busy calculating and figuring out how much money has been stashed with whom  and where. “Inside the jail, no one is a VIP. High-profile prisoners are not given any extra facilities unless ordered by the court (which of course fears Ram Jethmalani, especially after what he did to Karan Thappar),”

There were no juices and nutritional breakfast for five corporate executives and they are having paranthas(with extra cheese of course) in the jail's canteen for breakfast and mess food during lunch and dinner, which comprises daal(makhani with special lasan da tadka), roti(either tandoori or rumali depending on mood), sabzi(navratan kurma and varieties of panner with a portion of malai kofta generally)  and rice(Hyderabadi biryani specially parceled from Hyderabad arrives every day in Raja’s new charter). They have each been lodged in separate 10x15 feet self-contained cells (with toilet and bathroom, of course centrally air conditioned with a high definition LED TV with a Tata Sky connection, ‘isko laga dala toh life jinga lala’) in Jail Number 3. The security of their cells is also higher than for the other prisoners as they are expected to have carried huge sums of cash with them, which they probably did not find time to count earlier.

Now let’s take a look at each of the high profile inmate’s life at Tihar.

Suresh Kalmadi – Mr.Kalmadi being the latest entrant to Tihar has been found observing the Tihar jail very carefully since he has walked in and sources have seen him talking to the long time residents of Tihar. Upon questioning people whom Kalmadi had a tete a tete with, sources found that he was planning on converting Tihar to another games village, so that the Tihar Jail could host the first ever ‘Tihar Sharewealth Games’ (TSG), All the inmates are assured a chance to participate in the games as all participants are expected to get a cash prize of 1 Crore on registration for the event. Upon being asked about the funding for the same, Kalmadi seemed to be quite in control of things indicating a sponsorship deal with the corporate big wigs including DB Realty's Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech's Sanjay Chandra, and Reliance Telecom's Gautam Doshi being the event sponsors while A.Raja assured to be the Title Sponsor for the mega event.

Lalit Bhanot – On the other hand Mr.Lalit Bhanot the former Secretary General of CWG Delhi 2010 was allotted a dirt-caked cell, a mattress stained with dog paw prints and a sink smeared with the spittle of chewing tobacco. Lalit still seemed to be quite happy with what he got as he thought it was still really a high standard thing in India and he felt privileged to get such nice accommodation especially after his comment on Indian hygiene in September 2010.

A.Raja - A.Raja was seen complaining to the Tihar inmates (some of whom were Dalits) that he was targeted because he was a Dalit and ensured this way that he had some support for him inside this new 2G haven he secured for himself after years of planning and hard work. Some of the inmates seemed to be really happy as they were able to meet one of India’s richest men (quickest) which otherwise would never have been possible. When a close inmate of Raja, pointed to him that, his aide Sadiq Batcha in his note wrote that he blamed nobody for his death, but that he was embarrassed by "raids and media limelight over the 2G spectrum scam." He also wrote that Mr Raja and his wife "are good people." To which Raja seemed to have whispered, “How could I have asked him to write poorly about me, Tell?”

R.K. Chandolia - Former telecom minister A Raja's private secretary RK Chandolia had threatened several Tihar officials to ensure grant of the royal suite of Tihar to Shahid Balwa of   Swan Telecom as he thought it fit to ensure special allocation for his old client as he hadn’t done enough for him for the amount he received from him, so he is still trying to make good for the payment received and convince Balwa that he isn’t a Namak Halal!

As we go for print, a source close to Raja told us that, while the others were a little sad and bored all this while with not much to do at Tihar, A.Raja seemed to be quite excited since a couple of days. Sources close to him confirmed to us that it had to do with Kanimozhi having her trial in the SC. Raja hoped to unite with her again at Tihar, hoping Tihar authorities will provide a separate 2G cell for the couple who have been talked about by the whole nation for quite long.

The source also added that, the first movie Kani and Raja watched together was 7G Rainbow Colony (Hit Tamil Film) and as a result of which they chose the 2G spectrum allocation as an opportunity to  use that as a sign of their togetherness, leading to they taking the 7G worth of share from the allocation and leaving the exchequer poorer. What an idea 2G!!!

© The Tihar Times

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