The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Medical board to examine gang leader mooted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 27, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Medical board to examine gang leader mooted

G. Anand

He was found loitering outside the cell in the hospital

Three of four guards absent from their post
Four criminal case suspects arrested

Thiruvananthapuram: The police will seek the constitution of a medical board to examine the condition of alleged gang leader ‘Kannanmoola’ Rajesh who is being treated for ‘tuberculosis of the hip’ at the Chest Diseases Hospital at Pulayanarkottai.

Rajesh was imprisoned in June this year under the provisions of the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

He was admitted to the hospital on October 8.

V. Suresh Kumar, Circle Inspector (CI), Medical College, on Friday conducted a surprise inspection at the hospital and found Rajesh loitering outside the prisoner’s cell.

Of the four policemen detailed as guards, only one was present. The CI seized two bottles of liquor from the guard who was later medically examined and found drunk. The police arrested four criminal case suspects who were with Rajesh at the time of the inspection.

A senior official said the guards allowed Rajesh to use mobile telephones and a laptop computer at the hospital. The prisoner was allowed to meet outsiders and accept food and liquor from visitors.

Referred to MCH

A. Badarudeen, Superintendent of the Central Prison, said Rajesh was referred to Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) (Orthopaedic unit four) after he reported difficulty in walking because of a persistent pain in the hip. The MCH unit diagnosed Rajesh with the illness.

Subsequently, V. Rajeevan, prison medical officer, referred Rajesh to the Pulayanarkottai hospital on the ground that the jail did not have sufficient facilities, including nursing staff to administer regular injections, to meet his treatment ‘regimen.’

The police said Rajesh had tried to evade the rigours of imprisonment in the past too. He had got himself admitted to the MCH Ortho-4 unit for ‘prolonged treatment in a luxury payward’ after the District Magistrate issued a non-bailable arrested warrant against him in June.

However, a medical board constituted at the instance of the police found that Rajesh’s condition was not ‘life threatening.’

The board said Rajesh could be shifted from the payward to the prisoner’s cell.

The board also found that Rajesh did not suffer from any deformity of the spine. There was ‘some evidence’ of arthritis but no ‘neurological deficit’ in his lower limbs, it said. An MCH internal inquiry also found that Rajesh had been admitted to the Ortho-4 unit in a highly irregular manner.

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