Minister refutes allegations of torture by jail staff

LUDHIANA: When injury marks and bruises on the body of an inmate revealed his physical torture in the jail premises, jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has refuted allegations on the jail personnel. The minister has also denied that there was any hunger strike observed by the inmate as a protest.
An undertrial, Sanjeev Kumar — arrested by Doraha police on June 22 in an NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) case — has accused three jail personnel of thrashing him with sticks. He said jail officials demanded Rs2,000 from him, and on refusing it, they thrashed him on July 8. When jail authorities did not take any action, Sanjeev narrated the incident to his elder brother Satish the next day. Satish moved an application with the local court, after which the court ordered the jail superintendent to conduct Sanjeev’s medical examination and submit the report.

Claiming that his brother had been implicated in a false case of drug peddling due to political vendetta, Satish alleged his brother was assaulted for the same reason in the jail. Refuting the allegations, jail superintendent Shamsher Singh Boparai said: “Sanjeev and two other undertrials Akhtar and Putbill were lodged in the same barrack. The trio had a fight over sleeping space in the barrack, and they thrashed each other. Following their scuffle, head warden Balwinder Singh Ghuman reached the spot and used force to control them. But he did not thrash any inmate deliberately,” he said.

Boparai said the next day he issued a show-cause notice to Ghuman, seeking an explanation from him within six days, and had also changed his duty. Satish also alleged his brother had observed hunger strike for three days in jail, as officials did not take him for a medical examination.

Randhawa denied all the allegations, and said: “All allegations are baseless. Sometimes, jail officials have to use a little force to handle inmates.” When asked about injury marks and bruises on the inmate’s body, Randhawa could not give a satisfactory reply, and kept saying nothing had happened in the jail. The minister also claimed no hunger strike was observed by the inmate.

UNDERTRIAL’S BROTHER QUESTIONS

Undertrial Sanjeev Kumar’s brother Satish said: “If jail personnel had not beaten my brother, then how did he get so many bruises on his body? If he was thrashed by fellow inmates, then why have the jail authorities not taken any action against those inmates?”

June 25- A facebook post has gone viral in which Ludhiana Jail authority has been accused for torturing inmates who thrashed sacrilege accused Jagjeet Singh inside Ludhiana Central Jail. The post which is updated on a facebook id - Davinder Bambiha (group) states that the Jail authority has made accused naked to humiliate, further have thrashed them badly that one has sustained severe head injury and another had got disc problem.

After the post Jail minister Randhawa stated that he has asked Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill to conduct inquiry on the allegations on jail authority.

When asked to CP Gill he said, "I have not received any orders of inquiry in jail matter, so far."