NHRC orders relief for death in custody of undertrial prisoner in Maharashtra

The National Human Rights Commission has ordered compensation of an amount of Rs.1.00 lakh to be paid by the State Government of Maharashtra to the dependants of an undertrial prisoner who died in the Nasik Road prison due to a lack of medical treatment while in prison.

The undertrial prisoner, Jagannath Paoji Ingule, 44 years of age, died of cardio-respiratory arrest due to an advanced stage of pulmonary and abdominal tuberculosis. He was also suffering from severe anaemia. Shri Ingule died on 3 February 1997 after he had been in undertrial custody for more than one and a half-years.

The Commission felt that it was unfortunate that the disease was not diagnosed even though the undertrial prisoner had been in custody for more than one and a half-years. In fact, at the time of his death, he was being wrongly treated for dysentery and anaemia while he was actually in the terminal stages of tuberculosis.

It is the Commission’s view that access to adequate, timely and proper medical diagnosis and treatment is an inherent right of the prisoners whose freedom to seek and have access to medical aid outside and on their own is curtailed by law. The prison authorities are, therefore, under a duty to bestow a reasonable degree of care and diligence on such cases. The disease was curable in the current state of medical science without any sophisticated medical regime. However, this case turned out to be fatal, by reason of insensitive custodial treatment which led to an avoidable loss of life.

In addition to providing monetary relief to the dependants of the deceased, the Commission has, accordingly, also asked the State Government take comprehensive steps to control the spread of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in the prisons and to install, wherever lacking, adequate diagnostic facilities.