Tihar jail rocked by 5 deaths this month

NEW DELHI: An inmate was found dead in Tihar under mysterious circumstances on Thursday night — the fifth death in this month in Asia’s largest prison.
After 36 deaths were reported last year and another 15 between this January and April, the Delhi high court blasted jail authorities and the government, asking them to submit status reports of investigations into all the cases at the earliest.The deaths were caused by suicides, murders and accidents, Tihar officials said.
On Thursday, the body of an undertrial was found in jail number 1, the deputy superintendent of which was incidentally arrested on Wednesday for assaulting his daughter-in-law.
The inmate, identified as Rinku, had been arrested by the west district police over a case of robbery and was in jail for the past few months. He recently got bail and was to be released on Friday, his family claimed, alleging that he was poisoned. Police have initiated inquest proceedings under 174 CrPC, treating the death as “unnatural”.
Rinku’s uncle Suresh Juneja said the family had reached the jail to take him home when the authorities informed them that he was admitted to DDU Hospital. “They did not specify anything and when we reached the hospital, we were told that he was dead. This is murder and we want justice,” he said. The family accused the jail officials of negligence and demanded prompt action. They claimed the Moti Nagar police had falsely implicated him in the case.

Prison officials have initiated an inquiry into the death while awaiting the autopsy report.
While conducting autopsy of another convict Salman, 24, doctors have recovered drugs from his stomach, police said, adding that he was murdered by Pramod, another convict, on Tuesday. The murder weapon was an improvised sharp-edged object made out of a rod to clean drains.
On September 2, an inmate, who was reportedly suffering from epilepsy, was found dead in a toilet of his ward located in jail number four. Tihar officials claimed he slipped following a fit and died.
The next day, Amol, 35, an undertrial, was found hanging in the toilet of the drug addicts’ ward in jail number 3. He tore apart a bedsheet and hanged himself from a grill of the toilet vent. On September 15, Riyazuddin, a 38-year-old inmate, was found hanging in his ward.