Ailing Jharkhand prisoner kept in police station

Delay in treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has forced an undertrial prisoner from Jharkhand’s Saraikela Jail, arrested for alleged involvement in Maoist activities, to stay in unhygienic conditions on the verandah of the Hauz Khas police station in south Delhi for the past 10 days, his family members have alleged.

Delay in treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has forced an undertrial prisoner from Jharkhand’s Saraikela Jail, arrested for alleged involvement in Maoist activities, to stay in unhygienic conditions on the verandah of the Hauz Khas police station in south Delhi for the past 10 days, his family members have alleged.

HT Image

The prisoner, Chandan Deonath, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is in dire need of surgery, has been sleeping on a plastic mat and a bed-sheet. He cannot walk on his own and is unable to control his bowel movement and urine, said an activist from Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, (PUDR), Delhi.

An officer from the Hauz Khas police station, however, denied housing any undertrial prisoner. The prisoner’s brother Subir on the other hand told HT that they had been kept there since September 9.

“No medical facility is being provided to my brother at the police station. We are facing difficulties taking care of him,” said Subir. When HT called the jailer of Saraikela jail to ask why a bed-ridden prisoner has been kept confined at a police station, he said: “Chandan is a Maoist arrested in 2007 for carrying out anti-national activities. Since the charges against him are serious, we have to keep him under police custody. It is unfair to say that he is not being given medical attention at AIIMS because we have been constantly getting updates about his treatment.”

Asked why he cannot be kept at AIIMS itself, the jailer cited unavailability of bed at the hospital.