Close on the heels of serial rapist Jaishankar alias Psycho Shankar’s daring escape from the Parappana Agrahara central jail, an undertrial died there under mysterious circumstances. Police and the Prison Department officials maintained that the prisoner committed suicide using shoe laces.
On Saturday, the city police arrested Rajesh Mukhia Bahadur (26), who was working as a chef in a bar and restaurant in Kammanahalli, on charges of assaulting a woman. A native of Darjeeling, Rajesh had come to the city five years ago.
After the arrest, he was produced before a magistrate and was remanded to judicial custody. He was brought to the prison around 11.45 pm.
As it was late, he was first lodged in the admission room and given an undertrial prisoner number.
Police said that around 3.30 am on Sunday, he went to the toilet and hanged himself from the window grill joining the laces of both his shoes.
The prison staff, who spotted him hanging, rushed him to the jail hospital where he was declared brought dead, police said. DIG (Prisons) VS Raja told Express, “Bahadur had prepared to commit suicide and was citing an upset stomach to go to the toilet repeatedly. He tied the shoe laces to the iron bar of the window and pressed his neck against it with full force. The nylon shoe laces were very tough. He was found by the night watchman who went to check on him as he did come out for a long time. The watchman managed to cut the shoelaces and rushed him to hospital, where he was declared brought dead.”
Asked if a person can hang himself with shoelaces, a senior police office said, “The Prisons Department officials have told us that he committed suicide using shoe laces. We are waiting for the medical report that can throw more light on the incident.”
The incident raises serious questions about security arrangements in the prison.
Sources in the prison said that generally, they would allot a barrack to undertrials who are brought to the prison before 7.30 pm.
“As Bahadur was brought very late, he was left at the admission room. We normally issue the UTP number the next morning and send the prisoner to a barrack,” a source said.
Hennur police said Bahadur was in love with a girl, identified as Kavitha, who stays at an apartment in Kammanahalli. A few days ago, he had gone to his hometown. “On his return, one of his friends informed him that he had seen Kavitha with another boy,” police said.
Bahadur went to Kavitha’s house and picked a quarrel with her. Kavitha’s older sister Geetha tried to pacify him. In a fit of rage, he tried to attack Kavitha with a kitchen knife and Geetha, who came in between, sustained injuries in the attack. Kavitha filed a complaint against Bahadur and he was arrested.
Not the first time on jail premises
A senior police officer said that on August 5, 2007, a similar incident was reported in the same prison, where Deputy Inspector-General, Prisons, B S Abbai, who was incharge of the Bangalore Central Prison, hanged himself with a plastic rope from a window at his official residence on the jail premises. Abbai was reportedly depressed for several days after he came to know that he was likely to be suspended for certain alleged irregularities that had taken place in the prison.