Bhubaneswar: Some recent incidents like the death of under-trial prisoners (UTPs), alleged ill-treatment and sexual harassment of prisoners indicate that all is not well in the state jails.
According to reports, two UTPs died under mysterious circumstances during this week. The UTP lodged in Puri District Jail, identified as Sridhar Das, died while undergoing treatment at the district headquarters hospital Sunday morning. Similarly, another UTP Ramadhara Bothra, who was lodged in Nabarangpur sub-jail, breathed his last at a hospital Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Sridhar’s wife accused the jail authorities of killing him and suppressing the issue that they had hospitalised him.
Several jail inmates, their relatives and well-wishers often alleged ill-treatment and torture of the prisoners by the jail staffers.
According to available data, as many as 117 petitions have been lodged in Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) during 2016 to 2019 in connection with allegations of ill-treatment and torture of inmates inside jails. The OHRC has received 59 complaints from the prisoners or their relatives in 2018 only.
Similarly, the inmates lodged 66 complaints with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) alleging ill-treatment in state prisons. The NHRC received 18 complaints from the prisoners from Odisha in 2019 while as many as 21 applications were lodged in 2018.
On the other hand, a recent shameful incident has exposed the tall claims of enhanced surveillance through closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) installed in the state prisons. A lady UTP accused a fellow male inmate of sexually abusing her in alleged connivance with some jail authorities in Titlagarh in Bolangir district. An audio recording of the conversation between the victim lady and the accused male prisoner was also received by the local police.
The incident raised questions about the security at the jail as the accused succeeded in bringing a mobile phone inside the prison.
Director General for state Prisons Directorate Santosh Upadhyay said, “The DIG, Prisons of Sambalpur has been asked to enquire into the sexual abuse of the woman UTP in Titlgarh jail. He has started the investigation. We will take stringent action after the receipt of probe reports by the DIG and local police.”
The UTPs died recently were sick and undergoing treatment, said Upadhyay, adding the probe into all the custodial deaths is monitored by NHRC and OHRC. “There are NHRC guidelines to investigate such incidents. The judicial magistrate also conducts an independent investigation,” he said.
Gyan Ranjan Mohapatra, OP
