A 28-year-old prisoner under judicial remand died late on Friday night after getting operated in the Government General Hospital here for abdominal injuries he had allegedly received prior to coming to jail.
The prisoner, Korapati Narender Reddy from Kovur Nagar in the city, was booked under POCSO Act for allegedly sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl on January 3, while her parents were away. The grandmother of the minor girl had complained that the man had allegedly tried to sexually abuse the girl by offering a chocolate.
Following the incident, local people allegedly thrashed Narender Reddy before handing him over to the police. The police produced him in the court and was remanded in judicial custody within 24 hours.
Deputy Superintendent of Police G. Veeraraghava Reddy said that he complained of abdominal pain on January 4 and was taken to a hospital and brought back to the jail.
Later, on January 13, he was taken to the hospital for operation of intestines. After the surgery on January 14, he went into a coma and did not recover from it till he died. He was absolutely fine talking to everyone till he went into the operation theatre, the police said.
Injury marks
Anantapur Revenue Divisional Officer Gunabhushan Reddy, who conducted the panchanama of the body on Saturday afternoon, told The Hindu that there were visible injury marks on the abdomen and slightly on the head and prima facie he died in a state of coma at the hospital. The man’s mother said he died due to the injuries in the attack by the minor girl’s relatives and neighbours.
The post-mortem has been completed, but the final report is yet to he given to the RDO.
Inquiry
An expert committee will probe into the medical treatment and reasons behind the death in the hospital. An inquiry has also been ordered into the entire circumstances leading to the custodial death.
