Undertrial dies mysteriously at Tihar

NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old undertrial prisoner died under mysterious circumstances in Tihar Jail's high-security ward in jail number 8 in the wee hours of Sunday morning, prompting a demonstration by around 150 people, including his relatives, outside a city hospital on Monday.
The deceased, identified as Mohammad Nayeem Ahmed alias Nadeem, was found frothing from his mouth and nose while bent over in a namaz position in his cell, said jail officials.A magisterial inquiry has been ordered and police will register a case after the probe, said cops. This is the fifth case of unnatural death in the past one year, with four cases already registered in Hari Nagar police station since last year.
Tihar law officer and spokesperson Sunil Gupta said: "We can't comment on the cause of death as the magistrate is inquiring into the matter."
A jail source said: "When the duty warden noticed Nayeem in that position around 2.15am, it raised his suspicion and he alerted his senior officials. Nayeem was declared dead by the jail doctor at 3.10am. The deceased had attended a court hearing on Saturday morning and the deceased's co-accused have suggested that he had taken some sedatives at the court lock-up afterwards."
Around 150 people, including relatives of the deceased, protested outside Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital on Monday morning, asking for Nayeem's postmortem in a different hospital, and the body was shifted to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital amid high security on Monday afternoon.
"We fear that the doctors in DDU may be hand in glove with jail officials and are not confident of the veracity of the postmortem by DDU doctors. This is why we asked the postmortem to be conducted in a different hospital," said Mohammad Hanif, Nayeem's elder brother.
Nayeem's relatives claimed that he had been acquitted by court on Saturday. "We were told that he would be released on Monday as the next day was Sunday. However, he was found dead instead," said Hanif.
Jail officials, however, denied this, saying, "Nayeem had eleven cases - including attempt to murder and burglaries - against him and had been in jail since 2009. He had been relieved of six cases and was still pending trial in five others. There was no question of his release," said a senior official.
Nayeem had reportedly been shifted to the high-security cell after he was involved in an argument with some co-inmates. "Around four months back, Nayeem had an argument with some jail inmates after which we shifted him to the high-security cell where he was alone," said a jail official.
This is the third such death in the past two months, raising concern over the Tihar administration's role in the prevention of such incidents. "Each case of death is referred to the magistrate who conducts an inquiry and we take appropriate action after the receipt of the report," claimed Gupta.
Earlier last year, three inmates died in separate cases. While one death had been established as a case of culpable homicide where one inmate had killed the other, the probe is still pending in two others. In a fourth case, a 71-year-old convict had succumbed to cancer in DDU Hospital and doctors had opined that he had not been treated in time despite having complained to jail doctors. A case of causing death due to negligence had been registered in this case on the basis of the magisterial inquest report.