RAUTAHAT, DECEMBER 2
Security guards and naikes are tormenting inmates at Gaur Prison, Rautahat.
Jailbirds are living in fear of torture from security guards, and naikes.
Jailbird Ladai Sah, 24, of Dewahi Municipality was found hanging from a toilet inside the prison a fortnight ago. Sah was sentenced to 21 years in prison on abduction case. Sah's family charged that he was murdered and hanged later to make it look like suicide.
Jailbirds have written to the DAO and human rights commission saying that they were unsafe due to extreme torture meted out by naikes and security guards.
Rajesh Giri, who was freed from Gaur Prison, said that naikes and security guards had been extorting money from jailbirds. "Jailbirds are suffering from mental, physical and financial torture meted out by naikes and guards," Giri stated.
Wikki Singh, who is doing time for rape and murder, was made a security guard at the prison two years ago. As per the Prison Act, the oldest jailbird or someone who has least time left at the jail should be made the guard. The jail administration has made Sah the guard and chief naike in violation of the law.
Masir Dewan, Ram Naresh Yadav and Jaya Singh are the other naikes at the jail. Forty inmates under naikes and guards are torturing the jailbirds extorting money and meting out mental and physical torment.
Nobody wants to visit room no 6 as Wikki Singh's people torture jailbirds inside the room and have drugs. Wikki Singh has been running a shop inside the jail. Goods delivered by the inmates' family members are seized by Wikki's henchmen and put for sale in his shop. "The goods at the shop cost three times more than outside.
Wikki has been running a canteen and jailbirds complain that he feeds sub-standard food to the inmates.
According to Giri, jailbirds with money are taken to the hotel in nexus with police personnel.
After jailbirds launched an agitation against naike Singh, ten agitators, ten jailbirds including Jaya Babu were transferred to Ramechhap of late.
Gaur Prison jailer Shambhu Prasad Yadav, however, refuted the allegation and said that no unlawful activity was happening at the prison. He admitted that Wikki Singh was given responsibility of chief naike and running the canteen to feed jailbirds despite his record of heinous crime. "We have kept Wikki Singh and his people under control and we are preparing to transfer Singh and his men to another prison," according to jailer Yadav.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 3, 2021 of The Himalayan Times.
