STATE ASKED TO PAY ₹10L TO KIN OF UNDERTRIAL WHO DIED IN JAIL

MUMBAI: Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has directed the state government to pay ₹10 lakh to the family of a 32-year-old man who had died in a Beed jail in 2012 due to lack of timely medical treatment.

Though it was not a custodial death there was negligence on part of the prison authority and the police guard in providing medical treatment to the undertrial on time and hence, his family should be compensated, the court said on its March 2 order.

In 2015, the aged parents, widow and the minor children of the deceased, Pratap Kute, filed a petition in the court seeking ₹90 lakh in compensation on the grounds that he was the sole breadwinner of the family.

Advocate N R Thorat, appearing for the petitioner, told a division bench of justice Anuja Prabhudessai and justice RM Joshi that Kute, who was lodged in a Beed prison as an undertrial, suffered from spondylosis. On February 7, 2012, he complained of severe pain, but despite his request to the magistrate and the jail authority he was not taken to a hospital, Thorat said.

After his condition worsened on February 23, he was taken to the Beed government hospital. The doctors there suggested moving him to a hospital in Aurangabad, but the police guard refused to do so which ultimately led to Kute’s death on February 27, the advocate said.

The jail authority through additional public prosecutor M M Nerlikar claimed that it was not a case of custodial death and inquiries by the magistrate and the CBI had absolved them. The court, however, rejected the government lawyer’s argument.