Terming it as an ‘unfortunate incident’ the Kerala High Court on Monday directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to submit a report on the death of Satnam Singh Mann, a Bihari youth, at the Government Mental Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.
Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan issued the directive on a suo motu proceeding in this regard based on a report by amicus curiae V Ramkumar Nambiar. He had submitted that the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of Satnam Singh, who was arrested by the Karunagapally police, should be thoroughly probed.
Meanwhile, the state government submitted before the court that the death was owing to injuries to his head and neck within 24 hours, before his death. The incident happened after he was admitted to the Mental Health Centre, Home Department Additional Secretary N Ravaneswara Kumar said. In an affidavit, he submitted that Satnam and an inmate at the hospital fought each other. Seeing this, two staff of the hospital and four patients entered the cell with insulated plastic cable, lock and stick. They wrongfully detained and held him down by the back of his neck and banged him against the cell wall and let him unattended. Hospital janitors found Satnam bleeding and lying unconscious when they arrived to serve dinner,” it said.
The state submitted that the probe is in the final stages and six accused are in judicial custody. The accused are Anilkumar, first grade assistant, Vivekanandan, jail warden and four working patients- Biju and Dileep, hailing from T’Puram, Manjeesh of Kollam and Sarath Prakash of Alappuzha.