REPORT XII
INVESTIGATION REPORT INTO THE DEATH OF UNDERTRIAL IN CENTRAL
JAIL, LUDHIANA ON 2ND MAY, 2001
Chandigarh
3rd May, 2001
The jail conditions in Punjab have again come to the fore with
another case of suicide reported in newspapers on 3rd May, 2001.
The Central Jail, Ludhiana has remained in the news since long
where more than eight prisoners have died due to various reasons.
The latest incident of suicide by an undertrial is another black
mole on the conditions prevailing in the jail.
Jeet Singh, son of Lal Singh, resident of Sidhwan Bet in District
Ludhiana was arrested under NDPS few days ago and sent to judicial
custody only two-three days ago. Alleged to be a drug addict,
the undertrial was hale and hearty when brought to the Central
Jail, Ludhiana. Suddenly on 2nd May, 2001 at about 2 P.M. he allegedly
committed suicide by hanging himself in the toilet of the barrack
where he was lodged. The inmates of the barrack accuse the jail
administration for not giving him the required medicines which
the deceased wanted to get. According to other inmates, he was
neither attended to by the jail doctor nor given any medicine,
particularly when he had complained of pain in his body. The jail
administration while denying this allegation pleaded that the
deceased was a habitual drug addict and had demanded drugs from
the jail officials and when he could not get the drugs, he committed
suicide. They said that since the prisoners are medically examined
on Monday and Thursday, the deceased could not be medically examined
as he had not reported in the jail hospital in time.
Another startling fact, which is certainly a matter of great
concern, if it has any streak of credence, came to our notice
that while few undertrial police officials are provided with every
kind of luxarious items like wine, women and even mobile phones
inside the Central Jail, Ludhiana, many poor prisoners are not
even provided proper medical treatment. Their is no regular check-up
of prisoners by the jail doctors. Paucity of funds, non-availability
of required medicines and free flow of drugs inside the jail,
adds to the plight of the prisoners. Many prisoners told that
most of the prisoners suffer from sexually transmitted diseases
as sodomy and unnatural acts are quite common among the prisoners.
A team of investigators of our body headed by Sh.Shashi Sharma
of Jalandhar and Sh.Anil Sharma have opined that the deceased
Jeet Singh has died due to the negligence of the jail officials
and if his condition was not normal, the jail doctors were required
to take special care to avoid any untoward incident. Our body
holds the jail officials of Central Jail, Ludhiana responsible
for the loss of life of the deceased and demand a high level judicial
inquiry into the conditions prevailing in Central Jail, Ludhiana
and to fix responsibility on the officials for this lapse and
also demand from the State government that an interim compensation
should be paid to the next of the kin of the deceased.
Home
HOME 