1984 riots convict, lodged in Mandoli jail, dies of Covid

nNEW DELHI: Mahender Yadav, a former legislator from Delhi’s Palam constituency who was convicted in the 1984 anti-sikh riots, died at a private hospital in Dwarka on Saturday, days after testing positive for Covid-19 at Mandoli Jail where he was lodged for the last 18 months.

Yadav is the second prisoner to have died of the disease in the national capital. The other Covid death, on June 19, had taken place in the same barrack where Yadav was lodged.

On Wednesday, Yadav’s family had approached the Supreme Court seeking interim bail for him but the apex court rejected his petition saying prisoners suffering from coronavirus were not entitled to any special treatment or favours.

Yadav was serving a 10-year sentence in the anti-sikh riots case after conviction by a CBI court in 2018. He had been in jail since December 31 that year.

He was lodged in jail number 14 of Mandoli Jail located in north-east Delhi.

Sandeep Goel, director general (Delhi Prisons), said the death of the other prisoner, Kanwar Singh, due to coronavirus had prompted the authorities to test all the other 29 inmates in that barrack. These 29 prisoners, including Yadav, were mostly senior citizens. “Seventeen of these 29 inmates tested positive in the first round on June 20. The others were tested again five days later and three more inmates were found to be infected. Yadav was found positive in the second round of testing,” said Goel.

A day after his test results showed he was positive, Yadav developed “uneasiness and heart-related symptoms” after which he was referred to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, said Goel. “The same day, he was referred to Lok Nayak Hospital,” said Goel.

On June 30, Yadav was moved to the Akash Healthcare Hospital in Dwarka. HT’S efforts to reach Yadav’s son did not elicit a response.