Afzal’s execution in Tihar rattled Ram Singh

Gang rape accused Ram Singh, who allegedly committed suicide at his cell in Tihar jail on Monday, was reportedly rattled by the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack case convict Mohammed Afzal Guru over a month ago, sources said. Abhishek Sharan reports.

Gang rape accused Ram Singh, who allegedly committed suicide at his cell in Tihar jail on Monday, was reportedly rattled by the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack case convict Mohammed Afzal Guru over a month ago, sources said.

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Singh had confided in some of his co-inmates that he too would meet the fate of Guru, who was hanged on February 9 at 8 am, a jail source said.

Singh and Guru were both lodged in sub-jail three of Tihar prison. “According to the statements of several co-inmates of Ram Singh, he was shocked over the hanging of Afzal Guru in February. In fact, Guru’s hanging was talked about for days by several inmates at sub-jail three,” the sources said.

While Guru was lodged in a high-security solitary cell fitted with closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) for 24X7 surveillance, Singh occupied an ordinary cell with no such facility for electronic watch.

“There is a buzz among the inmates of sub-jail three about whether Guru’s hanging had affected Singh a little too much, if he started brooding about his eventual fate since then,” said the source.

According to the version of three inmates, who had shared Ram Singh’s cell, the latter had spoken about how a death term awaited him and his brother Mukesh, who is a co-accused in the gang rape case. Though he was showing signs of being depressed, Singh never went for in-house psychological counselling, according to the jail source.

The findings of the internal probe into Singh’s alleged suicide is likely to be submitted to Tihar’s Director General Vimla Mehra by Saturday. As many as 25 jail officials, including a jail warder, have given their versions to a judicial official who is probing the incident.