Khobad Ghandy (top) , Madhuri Gupta

New Delhi, Aug. 21: Tihar jail inmates can phone a friend, if they have behaved well.

But not if they have been locked up for alleged offences against the state — even if they have behaved well.

So Maoist leader Khobad Ghandy and alleged spy Madhuri Gupta can only look on while R.K. Sharma, Manu Sharma and Santosh Singh, all convicted of murder, are burning up the phone lines at Tihar’s newly launched phone-a-friend facility.

Sharma and Singh figure on the well-behaved list and can queue up for the facility once a week at Asia’s biggest prison.

But jail officials say Gupta, who is facing charges of supplying secret information to Pakistani intelligence agents, might call up some “ISI agents”.

So no phone calls for the disgraced diplomat.

Ghandy, the alleged CPI (Maoist) politburo member, too, is not allowed to use the phone. “Who knows, he might talk to a Maoist leader and hatch a conspiracy,” a jail official said.

“Madhuri Gupta and Ghandy are involved in offences against the state. Allowing them to use the facility is like asking for trouble as it can pose a great threat to security,” Sunil Gupta, the law officer of Tihar jail, told The Telegraph.

“Sharma and Santosh Singh, along with other prisoners with good conduct, are being allowed to enjoy the facility which has already become a big hit,” Gupta added.

R.K. Sharma, once a high-flying PMO official, was convicted of the 1999 murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar; Manu Sharma was jailed for life in the Jessica Lal murder and Santosh Singh was handed death for the 1996 rape and murder of fellow law student Priyadarshini Mattoo.

Gupta has requested jail officials several times to let her use the phone service. But every time her request has been turned down.

“She is applying all her tricks to mount pressure on us. Last week, she alleged before a court that she was being harassed by some jail officials. We told the court we were not indulging in any kind of harassment and were only carrying out routine searches in her ward on the direction of the ministry of home affairs,” said an official.

Ghandy, however, hasn’t been so desperate to use the service, jail officials said.

The phone-a-friend facility was launched in March following a Delhi High Court directive. The idea was to allow prisoners to talk to their family and friends.

The phones have recording facilities and jail staff are deployed at the booths to ensure that prisoners talk in languages easily understood.

“The phones have parallel lines and staff can pick up randomly during conversations if they have any suspicion over the nature of a conversation,” the official added.

According to jail rules, inmates can use the service once a week. The duration of a call can’t be more than five minutes.

Before making a call, an inmate has to identify himself or herself by putting his or her right thumb on a fingerprint scanner.

The scan is then matched with the inmate’s fingerprints stored at the time of incarceration.

The phone calls, however, don’t come for free. Each inmate has to cough up Rs 50 per month for local calls and Rs 100 for STD calls.

Tihar has around 12,000 prisoners in the 10 jails on its premises. Each jail has a telephone booth for use of the inmates.