Inmate hangs self in Mandoli jail, police say he was ‘upset’

POLICE SAID THE VICTIM, PAWAN KUMAR, WAS ARRESTED IN 2015 FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT IN A ROBBERY CASE. A CITY COURT HAD, IN 2017, SENTENCED HIM TO SEVEN YEARS IN JAIL

NEWDELHIA: A 27-year-old inmate of Mandoli jail allegedly hanged himself inside his cell on Tuesday morning, police on Thursday. Police said the man had been quite upset for a while since his family members had stopped visiting him. No suicide note was recovered.

Police said the man, identified as Pawan Kumar, was arrested from Kashmere Gate in 2015 for his involvement in a robbery case. A city court had, in 2017, sentenced him to seven years in jail. Prior to his conviction, he used to live in Kashmere Gate, police said.

Police maintained that on early Tuesday morning, other inmates of cell number three of the jail number 15 found Kumar hanging from the grill of the cell. Kumar had used his bedsheet to hang himself, police said.

Police said the other inmates alerted the jail staff, who pulled him down from the grille and rushed him to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. His family members were informed and a post-mortem was conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death, police said.

DCP (northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said inquest proceedings are on and the matter is being looked into.

The preliminary probe has revealed that Kumar was upset for more than six months as no one from his family had come to visit him.

They, however, maintained that Kumar’s family members used to visit him on a regular basis till six months ago.

Other inmates said that he had been keeping aloof and had stopped interacting with them for a while. The few times he spoke to them was when he wanted to share stories of his family, said a police officer, who is not authorised to speak to the media.