Convict dies inside Meerut jail, four including prison guards suspended

New Delhi, April 18

A 30-year-old life convict at Chaudhary Charan Singh district jail in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut died under mysterious ciircumstances. The prisons department has ordered for a departmental inquiry. 

Director General (Jails) S N Sabat has directed the suspension of prison guards Sanjay Rana and Manoj and wardens Ravinder Singh and Hari Shanker with immediate effect in the wake of the death. The DG also handed over the probe to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Jail) Subhash Chand Shakya.

The deceased was identified as Rohit Singh (30) who was found uncncious in the prison in the morning and was taken to the prison hospital from where he was referred to the district hospital. The doctors at the hospital declared him dead on arrival

Deputy jailer Rakesh Verma has filed a complaint at the local police station against unknown persons. 

The prisons department stated that he was kept in an isolation cell with an inmate Devi Karan. He claimed that he only saw Singh lying unconscious on Saturday morning and informed the prison guards.

Singh, a resident of Partapur in Meerut, was arrested in April 2018 for murderous assault and throwing acid on a woman in Shatabdi Nagar. On January 14, 2021, the local court awarded him life sentence for the crime but he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in December 2023. Later, the Supreme Court cancelled the bail and Singh was arrested again on April 9 and sent to Meerut jail.

The family has demanded strict action and called the suspension a cover up. he family has demanded a police investigation and arrest of the culprits.