They are 'angry': All four Nirbhaya case convicts counselled at Tihar jail

NEW DELHI: The four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case are being counselled for anger management in Tihar Jail after two of them, Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma, allegedly showed traits of violent behaviour even when prison staff approached them for routine checks. The behaviour of Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur is also under scanner, a source said.
In the past one week, Sharma misbehaved with jail officials while being served meals or asked to comply with the prison rules, the source said.Singh has also refused to comply with orders, he added.
Sharma, who has approached a court demanding that he be treated at Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences, however, didn’t show any sign of being mentally unstable during the tests conducted by counsellors, an official said. In addition to its in-house counsellor, Tihar has tied up with an NGO comprising of mental health experts who keep monitoring both inmates and jail officials.
The convicts can meet family members twice a week. After Sharma met his mother on Monday, his lawyer claimed the convict couldn’t recognise her. Jail officials, however, didn’t find anything unusual during the meeting.
Besides keeping all four convicts on a suicide watch in their solitary cells, the authorities are keeping an eye on their behaviour when they are meeting their family members or lawyers. A close watch is also being kept when they are out of the view of CCTV cameras or are in the bathroom. “A guard is specifically deployed to check on them if they take longer than usual to complete their chores,” said an official. They can meet each other only in the presence of a jail staffer.
To maintain their health, the convicts are kept on a simple diet. They are allowed to keep one set of clothes and only essential personal belongings.