Jail probe refutes clash theory

KOLKATA: Preliminary inquiries by the Presidency jail and state prison directorate officials indicate that Lal Bahadur Rai, an undertrial prisoner who died in the jail on Friday, had fallen while taking a bath and was injured in the back of his head.
“The DIG has visited the jail and carried out a probe which revealed that the prisoner died after falling inside the bathroom,� IG (prison) Jaidev Chakraborty said on Saturday.According to a senior jail official, the postmortem report corroborated this.
West Bengal Human Rights Commission chairman Justice (retd) Mukul Gopal Mukhopadhyay said that he had noted the incident and the commission would take a decision on carrying out an investigation on Monday.
Meanwhile, the jail was abuzz with rumours that Rai, 22, awaiting trial for a theft, had been injured in a clash between two groups of inmates at lunch time. It was alleged that the clash broke out when one group broke the food queue and the other protested.
Lal Bahadur’s father Ram Chandra Rai had complained about negligence on part of the jail staff, said an official. However, jail officials denied both allegations.
“We know there are groupings among prisoners, but we keep them separate and take care that they do not clash with one another. Otherwise, you would hear of clashes in the jail every day,� said one of them. Moreover, officials claimed, Rai was not even a part of any such group. “He was a petty thief and a drug addict. He had come to the jail only a couple of days ago,� they pointed out.
While conceding that old inmates often tried to extort new entrants in jail and beat them unless their family members pay up, the officials rejected such a possibility in Rai’s case. “He had come from such a poor financial background that one could easily see that there was no chance of getting anything from him,� they argued.