Physical injury not cause of prisoner’s death in Saharanpur: Autopsy report

“In his complaint, jailor Rajesh Kumar Pandey said that they came to know through other inmates that Anwar probably beat up Azam, leading to his death. I spoke to a few inmates but no one admitted to have witnessed any scuffle. I have approached the court again seeking permission to visit the jail to record statem-ents of the inmates and jail staff. I will also record the statement of the jailor to know how he came to know Anwar attacked the convict,” said the SHO who is the investigating officer in the case.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Saharanpur, Dinesh Kumar P, said, “A murder case was filed on the basis of the complaint filed by the jail authority. Since postmortem could not confirm the cause of death, we will wait for the viscera report to decide the next court of action. We will also seek opinion from legal experts.” Azam and Anwar are from Saharanpur.

Azam is lodged in Saharanpur jail since 2009 and a local court in 2011 sentenced him to life imprisonment in the dowry death case of his wife. Anwar is lodged in jail since November, 2018, also in connection with the murder case of his wife, said a jailor officer. Saharanpur jail superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma said, “Azam was undergoing treatm-ent at the Prisoners’ Mental Ho-spital in Varanasi where he was admitted twice. After returning from there, Azam was kept in a separate room in the jail hospital.”

“As per information provided to us by the jail staff, on Sunday morning, Anwar went to washroom located near Azam’s room. They got into a brawl over their turn in using the toilet. Now that the postmortem report has ruled out injuries, police have to decide their next court of action,” said Viresh Raj. After the incident, jail pharmacist RK Tiwari and jail warder Asif Khan were suspended on charges of negligence.

“Asif Khan was deployed at the jail hospital for security and jail pharmacist RK Tiwari was present at the hospital at the time of the incident,” said Viresh Raj Sharma.