COIMBATORE: Four warders of the Coimbatore Central Prison suffered injuries when a group of remand prisoners assaulted them on Thursday morning. The warders used mild force to quell violence. Tension prevailed for a while after seven prisoners climbed trees and inflicted injuries on their hands with razors.
According to sources, the Coimbatore Central prison has four separate blocks.
Around 600 remand prisoners are housed in the Wall Medu block. The cells are opened at 6 am and prisoners are allowed to remain in the open space till evening. They also go for early morning yoga sessions. Recently, seven prisoners --- Dinesh, Ayyanar, Alagarsamy, Hariharan, Kishore Kumar, Udhayakumar and Aravind, all aged between 20 and 25 --- ganged up and quarrelled with the warders. Three days ago, two of them were shifted to another block.
Around 6.45 am on Thursday, they were subjected to frisking by warders attached to the Quick Response and Operation Contraband team but the gang allegedly objected to it and picked up an argument.
“All prisoners are checked when they are allowed to move from one block to another in order to prevent contraband usage. The gang opposed to it and started to assault warders Ragul and Mohanram.
Two more warders Babu John and Vimalraj, who tried to pacify them, were also assaulted. Except for Babu John, the three warders were grade II constables. The prisoners inflicted bleeding injuries on the warders and they were admitted to the yellow zone in CMCH. Other warders rushed to the spot and used force to control the situation,” said an officer.
Immediately, the seven prisoners climbed trees and inflicted injuries on their hands with razors and threatened warders holding them responsible for the action. Prison DIG Shanmugasundaram and prison superintendent Urmila convinced them to climb down. The prisoners were treated in the prison hospital.
DCP (Coimbatore North) G Chandeesh rushed to the prison. Authorities lodged a police complaint against the seven prisoners.
“We brought the situation under control and shifted the seven prisoners to the Sub-Jail block. We held talks with the other prisoners asking them not to engage in such clashes,” DIG Prisons G Shanmugasundaram told TNIE.
Blades & plates
The prison dept provides razor blades to prisoners once in 15 days for personal care, but some misuse them. “In many states, prisons have replaced metal cutlery with plastic so that inmates do not have access to anything sharp that can be used as weapons. In Tamil Nadu, no such measures have been taken so far. More prisoners are given razor blades for a shave,” said a source inside the prison.