New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed shock at the murder of a Tihar Jail undertrial who was knifed to death inside the prison, saying that such things are only seen in fiction.“I don’t know how something like this can happen. It is shocking. We see such things only in fiction,” Justice Prathiba M. Singh said while hearing a plea moved by the victim’s father seeking Rs 5 crore as compensation for the custodial death of his son.This court asked the state of Delhi, the Director General and the Superintendent, Tihar Jail whether any charge sheet has been filed in the case and if so, the status of the trial in the case, reported LiveLaw.Ali Sher, in his plea filed through advocates Anwar A. Khan and Vishal Raj Sehijpal, has said that his son, Dilsher Azad, was an undertrial prisoner in Tihar Jail since September 2019.Also read: Awaiting Trial for Six years, UAPA Prisoner Dies While in CustodyOn November 30, 2020, he received a call from police officials informing him about the death of his son, but when he reached the jail, the prison authorities did not cooperate with him and he was not informed of the real cause of death.After Sher called a lawyer, he was informed that his son was stabbed to death with knives. The body was handed over on December 1, 2020.Sher had written complaints and sent representations to the Human Rights Commissioner, Lt. Governor, the Chief Justice of Delhi high court, the Delhi chief minister and DG of Prisons, for action against the erring officials and for compensation, to no avail.The high court directed the prison authorities, represented by Delhi government additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose and advocate Naman Jain, and the police to file a status report indicating whether an FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident and if so, the status of the investigation.During the hearing, Ghose too said “it was a matter of great concern” that something like this has happened in the national capital. He said there were nine wounds on the victim’s body.Also read: From Segregation to Labour, Manu’s Caste Law Governs the Indian Prison SystemThe court further said that the report shall also indicate whether the CCTV footage of the cell where the victim was housed has been recovered and preserved and if yes, in what manner.According to LiveLaw, the Justice Singh also pointed out that the period of storing such footage needs to be extended.“I had visited the Tihar jail once, and they have a very small time limit for which they preserve the CCTV footage. Nowadays we have cloud servers, so the issue with storage space is not there anymore. We should increase the time for storage of CCTV footages,” Justice Singh said.The court also said that the victim’s father be kept informed about the developments in the investigation or trial of the case.With these directions, the court listed the matter for hearing on March 5.(With PTI inputs)