Punjab jail officials ‘brand’ inmate a thief

Rocky, who was sentenced for a theft on February 9, says trouble began when he complained of stomachache and was refused medicine. Next, he asked for rice but was given chapatis instead. It was then that Rocky, who had been sent to the chakki room a week earlier for picking up a fight with an inmate, began to protest loudly. ‘‘Jail guards dragged me out of my cell and beat me. Jail superintendent Capt S.P. Singh and Assistant Superintendent Raj Kumar whispered something to Havaldar Chakkar Gulbadan, who handcuffed me, and then used a hot iron rod to write on my back,’’ he says.

IG (prisons) S.K. Dutta, who has asked Singh to file a report within 24 hours, said the jail authorities had nothing to do with the branding.

Deputy Superintendent Iqbaljit Singh claimed the prisoners often injured themselves to blackmail authorities into giving them drugs. ‘‘The tattoo on his back reads ‘ya chor lai’ and not ‘yeh chor hai’. This clearly indicates that it’s the handiwork of some other prisoner,’’ he says.

SMO (Civil Hospital) Dr Ashwani Kumar Sondhi said a team of three doctors examined Rocky today.