Prison authorities have ordered an inquiry into the death of a 61-year-old undertrial who was found with 50 per cent burns in his barrack in Jalaun district’s Orai jail Monday. Mool Chand Prajapati died during treatment at the district hospital. Jail officials claimed Prajapati had set himself on fire using matchsticks inside a toilet. He had been lodged in the prison since June 11. Postmortem report was conducted and the report is awaited. No FIR has been registered yet.
Additional IG, Prisons, Sharad Kulshrestha, said, “Since Orai prison officials claim to have found no flammable substance inside the washroom, DIG, Kanpur Range (Prisons) VP Tripathi has been asked to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report. A decision will be taken on the basis of the report.”
According to police records, the 61-year-old was in prison in connection with the death of Manish (30), a native of Rajendra Nagar locality in Jalaun, Mool Chand was a farmer and his son, who, used to operate an e-rickshaw, allegedly died of burn injuries in March.
Manish’s wife, Kiran, had then filed a complaint at the City Kotwali police station alleging that she was being harassed for dowry by her in-laws and that her husband had sustained burns while trying to save her when Prajapati and others allegedly tried to set her on fire. An FIR was lodged on the basis of this complaint.
Awadh Narayan Singh, jailor, Orai district jail, said Mool Chand was lodged in barrack no. 1 along with 45 other prisoners.
“At around 2 am on Monday, two prisoners of the barrack, who was awake, spotted smoke emanating from the washroom. They informed the jail warders on duty. Other prisoners woke up on hearing the alarm and tried to douse the flames. Mool Chand was rushed to the jail hospital, from where he was taken to the district hospital. He died there five hours later,” said Singh.
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The jailor said no flammable substance was found inside the washroom. “It appears Mool Chand set his clothes on fire using matchstick…I have written to the chief judicial magistrate of Jalaun requesting a judicial inquiry.”
SHO, City Kotwali police station, Rudra Kumar Singh said, “Manish’s wife had alleged in the FIR lodged on May 1 this year that Mool Chand, his wife Ramshree and their neighbour Satya Narayan used to harass her for dowry since after their marriage in June 2011. She further alleged that the trio would force her to get Rs 50,000 cash and a motorcycle from her parents. She claimed that her husband used to object to the dowry demands.”
He further said, “She alleged that on June 22, the accused caught her and tried to set her ablaze when Manish arrived and rescued her. Angered by the intervention, the accused set him on fire. Locals later rushed Manish to the hospital where he accused his father of setting him on fire before his death.”
A case was lodged against Mool Chand, Ramshree and Satya Narayan under IPC sections 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The police had also invoked the Dowry Prohibition Act against the accused, said the SHO.
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