June 12, 2007
One More Tihar Prisoner
Dies,
15 in Serious Condition
New Delhi
The summer's death toll in the high-security Tihar jail in West
Delhi reached five after one more inmate died Tuesday, sending
worried jail authorities scrambling for an explanation.
Jail authorities said that all the deaths have been due to natural
causes and are mostly the result of the intense summer heat sweeping
the capital.
Vinod Kumar, 27, booked preventively in connection with a minor
violence, died Tuesday of dehydration in the jail hospital after his
condition worsened overnight.
He was first taken to the nearby Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDU)
Tuesday, but was brought back to the jail hospital after his
condition improved, Tihar officials said.
According to jail officials, Kumar, a resident of Patel Nagar in
west Delhi, had been lodged in jail number seven since June 10.
Kumar is the fifth Tihar prisoner to die since Wednesday.
The first was 23-year-old Amir, who died at DDU after complaining of
dehydration. He was admitted to the hospital following an acute
stomach-ache.
Kanwaljeet, a 57-year-old diabetic, died Friday - also after
complaining of dehydration and stomach-ache.
Harish, a drug addict, was admitted to the same hospital Saturday
evening with a stomach-ache. He died Sunday morning.
Ajay, 30, who had been in Tihar since 2005 on charges of murder and
is an AIDS patient, died Monday.
According to jail sources, the condition of around 15 inmates
currently in the jail hospital, is serious. Tihar doctors have been
directed to prioritise all dehydration cases over the next two
months, till the weather cools down.
However, senior jail officials, who did not want to be named,
attributed all the deaths to natural causes and, as per government
rules on jail deaths, have ordered enquiries into them.
"We have asked all jail superintendents and doctors to regularly
visit prisoners who are not keeping well," Tihar Jail Director
General B.K. Gupta said.
Over-crowding has been a well-known problem with Tihar jail. Around
13,726 inmates are lodged in the jail - more the double its approved
capacity of 6,200.
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