Bhullar security doubled,kin visiting time cut
Health Worsens: Death row convict hallucinates he is finance minister,doctors say cant discharge him
Three days after the Supreme Court rejected his mercy plea,Devinder Pal Singh Bhullars security was tightened and the visiting time with his family members curtailed drastically at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences IHBAS in Delhi,where he has been admitted since December 2010.
The police guard of his room has been doubled to eight,officials said. A senior police official confirmed that instructions have been issued to IHBAS to cut down the visiting time of Bhullars family members and lawyers to 10 minutes,against nearly four hours they enjoyed till now.
We allow immediate family members four to five hours with their patients. Bhullars wife spent at least four hours when she came to visit. But when she came Monday morning,police officials said they have orders to cut down the time to 10 minutes, a senior doctor at IHBAS said. He said doctors have written to the police to extend the visiting time to at least 30 minutes.
Sources said Bhullars attendant,a ward boy provided by the hospital who has been staying with him for nine months now,has been barred from carrying his mobile phone inside the ward room.
His wife Navneet Kaur visited Bhullar Friday and told him about the verdict,sources said. He was particularly disinterested that day and has been turning down any attempts to counsel him. He stopped physiotherapy for lumbar spondylosis and just keeps lying in bed, Dr Rajesh Kumar,consultant in psychiatry who has been treating him since 2007,said.
Always a light eater,sources said in the last two days,Bhullar consumed just one chapatti,two glasses of milk and little bit of salad.
Kumar said Bhullars initial diagnosis of depression,now includes psychotic symptoms,and IHBAS has no plans to discharge him soon. We cannot discharge him now since his condition shows no improvement. In fact,there has been a deterioration. When he first came,he only had symptoms of depression. But now,there are psychotic manifestations also. We are giving him anti-depressants and anti-psychotic drugs with some injectable sedatives on certain occasions, Dr Kumar added.
Doctors said Bhullars psychotic symptoms include certain typical,repeated hallucinations. He frequently thinks he is the finance minister and keeps calling out for his helicopter saying he has meetings to attend. Sometimes he imagines he is with his father and starts talking to him, a consultant doctor attending him said.
Bhullar also does not go out of his room for walks,saying someone will stab him. Dr Amit Khanna,another consultant treating him,said,Sometimes he screams and claims he saw blood on walls. His conversations are incoherent and he keeps staring into space and talking to himself. He does not show any signs of understanding his case or the legal process. Doctors have had to sedate him at night on occasions when he suddenly left the ward,calling out to someone.
Since he was admitted to IHBAS,Bhullar has lost 7 kg and now weighs 57 kg. Now,he barely sleeps a couple of hours at night, a doctor added.
In its verdict last week,the SC had observed that the petitioners mental health has deteriorated to such an extent that the sentence awarded to him cannot be executed.
Doctors said Bhullars routine has also become more and more unstructured over the last two years. He misses meals and does not even bathe regularly, a source in the hospital said,adding that in the last few months,when he was rather coherent,he had resisted counselling saying: Doctor sahab,what is the point? How can ever I feel happy?
However doctors said he can recognise his family members and the doctor,though he doesnt have extended conversation even with his wife. Doctors said no instructions have been sent to them so far about Bhullars discharge or constitution of a medical board to ascertain his condition.
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