Govt to pay compensation for prisoner’s death

The judge asked the state Home Secretary to pass orders on the Collector’s report which was sent after an enquiry by his personal assistant soon after the death.

According to the petitioners, Natarajan was placed underjudicial custody in August 1992 in a theft case. On October 1, they got a telegram from the Prison Superintendent that their son had been admitted to the Government General Hospital here.

When they visited him in hospital, Natarajan showed injuries on his person and said he had been beaten up in jail.

The jail authorities contended that Natarajan had tried to escape from prison on September 17 by climbing atop a building housing the jail kitchen. However, they spotted him and asked him to get down. He fell down from the top of the building, resulting in injuries, they said.

The Judge, however, held that the respondents had placed no material to show that there was no negligence on their part for either the injuries or the death.