Alleging that some Cherlapally central prison officials, including its superintendent Santosh Kumar Roy, tortured him, a convict prisoner told a local court here on Tuesday that he had attempted suicide unable to bear their harassment.
The convict, S. D. Gafoor, complained to Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge court in Rangareddy court complex that at the behest of the prison superintendent an under-trial prisoner assaulted him by fingering his private parts. “I have attempted suicide unable to bear this third degree torture of fingers being forcibly put into my anus. Officers hitting me with lathis. I am unable to practice my religion and having to face daily torture and humiliation,” Gafoor said in his complaint to the IV Additional MSJ.
Mr. Gafoor was serving sentence in the prison and facing a couple of other cases. He was brought to the court by the prison authorities for appearance in other cases on Tuesday. Soon after being presented before the judge, the prisoner started narrating the alleged torture by the prison authorities. Mr. Roy, Krishnamurthy, Venkat Reddy and Satya hand-cuffed and beaten with fiber lathis, he charged. “Venkat Reddy kicked me in my face and my legs. I got bleeding injuries in my mouth,” he told the judge.
With the judge asking him to give a specific complaint, advocate D. Suresh Kumar of Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers (who was present in the court) volunteered to file vakalat to represent Mr. Gafoor. Mr. Kumar informed the court oral statement of the prisoner was sufficient for the judiciary to act upon on the issue. As Mr. Gafoor spoke in Urdu and Hindi, a young lawyer Rizwan present in the court came forward to assist the court.
He translated Mr. Gafoor’s complaint into English and presented it to the court. The prisoner explained to the court that he had slashed his head and neck with a blade on Monday, a day after being tortured by the prison officials.
The prisoner charged that constables of the prison made him consume soap water. According to him, Venkat Reddy and Satya threatened to implicate him in narcotics cases. Mr. Gafoor told the court that magistrates were not visiting the under-trial prisoners who were confined in single cells. They were only visiting the general barrack, he said.
On receiving the written complaint of the prisoner, the judge directed the prison authorities to take him to conduct medical examination of the injuries Mr. Gafoor had sustained. When the government counsel requested the court to hear prison officials’ contentions, the judge said he would listen to them eventually. The matter was posted to May 30 for next hearing.
