Shocked to hear from a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) about convicted prisoners being forced to do household work in the residences of prison officials and beaten up black and blue when valuables go missing, the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered an inquiry into the issue.
A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam directed the High Court’s Registrar General to furnish a copy of the CJM’s report, in a sealed cover, to the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services for initiating departmental action agains the erring officials.
After ordering the R-G to share a copy of the CJM’s report with the Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department too, the Bench directed the latter to register a criminal case against all the offenders and report progress to the court on September 20.
The interim orders were passed on a writ petition filed by 53-year-old S. Kalavathi of Krishnagiri district. Her counsel P. Pugalenthi told the court that the petitioner’s son S. Sivakumar had been convicted for life in a murder case and lodged at the Vellore central prison for the last 10 years.
In the last week of May, she came to know about her son having been assaulted brutally by the prison warders and kept in solitary confinement after suspecting him to have stolen ₹4.5 lakh in cash apart from gold and silver jewellery from the residence of a Deputy Inspector General of Prisons.
Though she made frantic efforts to meet him in the prison, the officials denied permission for an interview, the counsel said and insisted on issuing a direction to the prison authorities to provide necessary medical attention to the convict besides transferring him to the central prison at Salem.
Since the allegations against the prison officials were serious, the Division Bench had on August 9 directed the Vellore CJM to meet the convict in the prison, record his statement and file a detailed report before the court. Accordingly, the CJM filed his report before the court on Thursday.
After perusing it, the judges wrote: “We have gone through the report in entirety and it is shocking to our conscience. Serious allegations are raised against the prison authorities which require a detailed enquiry. It is not only a case of violation of Prison Manual, but a case of harassment/torture of the convict prisoner.”
They went on to state: “Illegal utilisation of convict prisoners in the residences of the jail authorities are also stated in the report. They (prison authorities) have not only violated the service conditions, but indulged in commission of offences. In view of the report, we have decided to initiate all appropriate actions.”
Ordering that the petitioner’s son must be shifted from Vellore to Salem central prison forthwith and provided with necessary medical assistance, the judges decided to keep the writ petition pending and monitor the action to be taken by the Director General of Prisons as well as the CB-CID.
They directed the High Court Registry to list the matter next on September 18.
Published - September 05, 2024 09:21 pm IST
