Mess behind bars: 7 dead in Delhi jails since March

Jail officers aware of these incidents said most incidents involving an inmate dying by suicide inside jails are due to family-related problems.

A 36-year-old inmate at the Tihar Central Jail, who was serving a life sentence for his involvement in a murder, died by suicide on Sunday evening by hanging himself in the bathroom, police officers aware of the matter said on Monday. Three days previously, on Friday, a 23-year-old undertrial inmate at Mandoli jail died at a hospital after consuming a poisonous substance.

Delhi’s jails have seven psychiatrists and 31 counsellors to address the psychological issues plaguing inmates. (PTI)

With these two incidents, the number of deaths or suicides in Delhi prisons has risen to seven since March, raising pertinent questions about security in the Capital’s jails. Two of the most high-profile deaths at Delhi’s prisons involved gangsters Prince Tewatia and Tillu Tajpuria, killed on April 14 and May 2, respectively by rivals inside prison.

However, jail officers aware of these incidents said most incidents involving an inmate dying by suicide inside jails are due to family-related problems. They also pointed to Delhi’s overcrowded prisons – Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini jails housing 20,558 inmates against their sanctioned capacity of 10,026.

According to jail officials, Sunday’s incident involved a convict sentenced to life for a murder in Delhi’s New Friends Colony in 2009.

“On Sunday, at 5.30pm, he was discovered attempting to hang himself behind the common toilet of ward number 1 of jail number 3. He was immediately taken to the Tihar Central Jail Hospital for treatment, and at 5.55pm, he was transferred to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. The on-duty doctor at the jail hospital and other medical staff accompanied him to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” said a senior jail officer, who asked not to be identified.

Friday’s incident involved an undertrial inmate at Mandoli jail, imprisoned for his suspected role in a robbery, who was discovered unconscious on Friday evening and was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital by the jail duty doctor.

Police officers said the Harsh Vihar police station received information from GTB Hospital about the prisoner being brought unconscious to the facility after consuming a poisonous substance and dying during treatment. “Because that inmate’s death was unnatural, the duty metropolitan magistrate of Karkardooma court conducted proceedings under section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. On orders of the metropolitan magistrate, the deceased man’s post-mortem was performed on Monday by a medical board comprising three doctors at GTB hospital’s mortuary. However, opinions on the cause of death are being withheld until the chemical analysis of viscera is received from the forensic science laboratory,” said a senior police officer, declining to be named.

Sanjay Baniwal, director general (prisons), said several inmates suffer from family or financial problems after they are incarcerated. “Sample the case of the 36-year-old, who died by suicide on Sunday evening. It was his second attempt to die by suicide as his wife deserted him and did not allow his 11-year-old daughter to talk to him. Some inmates need counselling, but as our jails house more than twice the number of inmates as their capacity, I am unable to interact with every inmate in person. Financial crisis, domestic problems, exploitation by their friends and relatives, and narcotic dependencies break an inmate from all sides,” he said.

Baniwal said Delhi’s jails have seven psychiatrists and 31 counsellors to address the psychological issues plaguing inmates.

He further said some prisoners get trapped in the web of hardcore gangsters. “And, after that, they have no way out. So they either kill others or kill themselves. An inmate dies by suicide only in an unstable state of mind. So we’ve decided to provide them more therapy and meditation classes,” he said.