Pilibhit: Jail staff unable to trace family of inmate who died from cardiac arrest

Pilibhit: Officials at Pilibhit district jail are facing an unusual challenge—they are unable to trace the family of an inmate who died on Friday. Abdul Haq, 47, suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon after days of deteriorating health and breathing issues. When jail authorities attempted to contact his family for his last rites, they discovered that no records linked him to the village he claimed as his native place.Haq had been in jail since March 27, 2023, serving a 10-year sentence for raping a minor in a village under Puranpur. However, district jail superintendent Rajesh Kumar Pandey told TOI that the village pradhan insisted Haq and his family had never lived there.This raises questions about how Haq committed the crime in the village, how police arrested him, and how the case was investigated and prosecuted.When questioned about it, Puranpur circle officer Vishal Chaudhary said the FIR was filed in 2014, when police operations were manual, and key facts might still be undiscovered. "We will contact the investigation officer to verify the details," he said. Pandey also noted Haq's father was listed as one Shravan Singh. "He told fellow inmates that his family died in his childhood during a pilgrimage to Kedarnath temple. He was later adopted by a Muslim family and named Abdul Haq," Pandey said.