A case has been registered against the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons, Vellore Range and 13 other jail officials in Tamil Nadu on Friday for making convicted prisoners do household chores at their homes and torturing them.
According to a report by The Hindu, the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) registered an FIR in the matter against DIG R Rajalakshmi, Additional Superintendent of Vellore Central Prison A Abdul Rahman and 12 others following an order of the Madras High Court on Thursday.
Life convict S Sivakumar's mother had approached the high court and alleged that her son was engaged in household work at the residence of the DIG of Prisons.
The publication, quoting a report submitted by the Vellore Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), said that "the convicts were being treated as slaves."
"It is firm that there was abuse of powers in utilising the services of convicts at the residence of DIG with slavery treatment affecting the liberty of the convicts,” the report said.
As per the report, the convict had also levelled charges of being beaten up after cash worth Rs 4.5 lakh went missing from the DIG's house. No complaint was filed in this regard. The CJM in his report noted that though the claim could not be verified, the convict was indeed kept in solitary confinement for 95 days "due to impact of some incident.”
The judicial officer also evoked provision 447 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Manual which states that ‘no convict shall be employed on any labour outside the walls of prison, or permitted to pass out of prison for the purpose of being employed, without the sanction of the IG of Prisons.’ No such sanction was granted in respect of the convict Sivakumar.
The CJM's report concluded with the view that "a detailed enquiry is required in the matter."
"As far as tortures said to have been done by the Additional Superintendent of Central Prison, the jailer and the constables within the prison and by the DIG and her Personal Security Officer (PSO) at her residence also require a detailed inquiry," the report added.
This led to the Madras High Court ordering criminal proceeding against the accused jail officials.
Vellore central prison jailer Arul Kumaran, the DIG’s PSO Raju, eight male constables and two female constables apart from the DIG and the Additional Superitendent have been named in the FIR and booked under BNS sections of abetment, causing hurt voluntarily and wrongful confinement among others.