The story so far: The prime accused in the Swathi murder case, P. Ramkumar, was found dead inside Chennai’s high-security Puzhal Central prison in 2016. Officials claimed he killed himself by “pulling and biting into a live electric wire”. Mr. Ramkumar’s father, however, alleged that it was an act of homicide.
In August this year, the Supreme Court Committee on Prison Reforms found suicide to be the leading cause of ‘unnatural’ deaths — deaths other than ageing or illnesses — among Indian prisoners, with Uttar Pradesh recording the highest number of suicides between 2017 and 2021. “...the number of custodial deaths has seen a steady rise since 2019, and 2021 has recorded the highest number of deaths so far,” their report stated. Other ‘unnatural’ causes of death include murder by inmates, death due to negligence or excesses, and ‘accidental deaths’, among other reasons. On the other hand, ‘natural deaths’ — 1,879 people in 2021 — includes ageing and illnesses.
The Hindu looks into trends of natural and unnatural deaths, and why experts think these numbers paint a grim picture of the state of healthcare and safety inside India’s prisons.
