: A 37-year-old murder convict died under mysterious circumstances at Tihar Jail on Friday afternoon.
The man, Sirajuddin, was convicted in a murder case registered against him at north-east Delhi’s Welcome police station in 2009. He had been awarded life sentence, and had been lodged at jail number nine of Tihar.
A senior jail official said Sirajuddin had a history of diabetes and heart ailments, and was undergoing treatment for them.
“It was around noon on Friday that a warder entered Sirajuddin’s cell. The convict was lying motionless on his bed. The warder immediately informed his superiors, who rushed him to the hospital’s medical centre,” said a jail official. Once it was established that Sirajuddin was dead, the police were informed.
Sirajuddin’s family members, however, are unwilling to buy the story. Alleging that the jail authorities were concealing from them the real cause of death, they claimed they were informed about the incident over six hours later. They also claiming that Sirajuddin’s body was not handed over to them even after the post-mortem was conducted.
Mukesh Prasad, Tihar Jail’s spokesperson, said a magisterial inquiry into Sirajuddin’s death had been ordered.
