Another suicide in Tihar, this time a woman inmate

Three days after Delhi gang rape accused Ram Singh was found hanging from an iron bar of the ventilator in his cell in Tihar jail, a 29-year-old woman under-trial allegedly killed herself — also by hanging from the ventilator of her cell.

Three days after Delhi gang rape accused Ram Singh was found hanging from an iron bar of the ventilator in his cell in Tihar jail, a 29-year-old woman under-trial allegedly killed herself — also by hanging from the ventilator of her cell.

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Reshma, who faced kidnapping charges, was lodged in Tihar’s sub-jail six — which can house 400 female inmates, but is occupied by around 540 women — for the past 16 months.

Tihar spokesperson Sunil Gupta said Reshma had been suffering from depression and had been on medication for the past one year and she did not leave any note to explain the motive behind her alleged suicide.

Informing that the body was found around 3pm on Wednesday by a matron who was on watch duty, Gupta said Reshma killed herself with a scarf when her two cellmates were away on some work. And like in Ram Singh’s cell, there was no CCTV camera to keep an eye on Reshma.

Gupta said, “A judicial probe has been ordered into the incident and the prison administration also began its internal probe.” He said the Tihar authorities had begun psychological assessments of inmates who were in the jail for at least a year or more, but he was not sure whether Reshma’s metal state was ever assessed.