Jail officials’ neglect costs youth’s life

Rs 1 lakh compensation to mother

Verdict

By CT reporter
MANGALORE: In a landmark judgement, the First Additional Civil Judges Court of Mangalore, has directed the district jail superintendent., deputy commissioner and chief secretary of the state government to pay a compensation of Rs one lakh to the mother of a youth who died of Malaria while remaining in judicial custody in the city sub jail, owing to the neglect of the jail authorities.

The case: Mohammad Sharief, the only son of a widow named Saramma, hailing from Panjimogaru in Mangalore was arrested in connection with a road accident that took place at Kodikal in 1996. He was sent to judicial custody for 15 days from 31-8-1998 and was lodged in the Mangalore sub-jail. The youth was then suffering from Malaria and the repeated plea by Saramma and Sharief to the jail authorities to provide him medical treatment, went unheard of. Sharief finally died on 14-9-1998.
Following this, Saramma wrote to the state minister for prison on 18-9-1998 demanding a thorough probe into the cause of death of his only son while in jail and sought aid to lead a life in the absence of her only son.
Copies of the appeal were also sent to the IGP, governor and home minister.
In a separate memorandum submitted to the deputy commissioner on 17-3-1999, she explained how her son had died owing to the blatant neglect of the jail authorities and even sought compensation. Copies of the memorandum were also sent to the then district in-charge minister.
Moves court
Saramma even contacted senior advocate KS Nambiar who served a notice on 28-12-1998 to the jail superintendent, deputy commissioner and chief secretary of the government, seeking a compensation of Rs one lakh to his client. However, when the respondents turned down the request, a petition was filed in the court.
During the hearing, the jail superintendent who admitted that Sharief was ill while in prison also argued that he was provided suitable treatment.
However, the court came to the conclusion that the youth died owing to the neglect of the jail authorities who failed to provide him timely treatment.
As per the court verdict, a compensation of Rs one lakh should be paid and any delay in payment would lead to levying of an additional 6 per cent interest with effect from February 5, 2007, the date of the judgement.
The court in its verdict has also rapped the jail superintendent, deputy commissioner and chief secretary for failing to furnish any evidence to prove their contention and has warned that legal action could be initiated for recovery of the compensation amount if they failed to adhere to the verdict.