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Jail staff blamed for prisoner’s murder

CUTTACK: Seeking compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs, old parents of a convict, who was murdered by another fellow-convict, have now approached the Orissa High Court stating that their only son was brutally murdered inside the jail premises due to gross negligence by jail authorities.

Behera, who was serving life imprisonment, was attacked by Pratap Khatei with a sharp kitchenware inside the jail in June this year. Behera succumbed to his injuries at SCB hospital here the day after the attack. Convicted for murder in 2004, Khatei, a native of Niali block of this district was mentally ill and he was under treatment.

“Stating that a mentally deranged person was kept openly in the jail along with other convicts without adequate security was the reason for the death of our son,” said Behera’s parents in their petition.

Father Chaitanya and mother Labani have told the High Court that Behera was their only son who was convicted for a dowry-related murder case in September, 1999. Lodged in Badamba sub-jail, Behera was shifted to Choudwar circle jail in September 2003.

“Since he was the only earning member of the family, we had decided to appeal against his conviction sentence in the High Court. But before that he was murdered inside the jail,” they lamented.

Questioning how a convict inside the jail could procure a sharp broken kitchenware and use it to murder a fellow-inmate, the old parents of the deceased convict blamed the jail authorities for the death of their son.

The parents say that they need social security.

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