Gauhati HC orders four North-East states to pay adequate compensations to kin of dead prisoners

Opening up a serious debate about the standard of Indian prisons (particularly, those situated in the North-East region) and the way prisoners are treated in the prisons, the Gauhati High Court has ordered those four states which come under its jurisdiction (that is, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram) to pay adequate compensations (that is, a sum of three lakh India rupees each) to the next of kin of those prisoners found dead in unnatural circumstances in the prisons located in these states between the year 2012 and 2016.

Around twenty people were reported dead in the prisons of these states in unnatural circumstances. Assam was the worst. In this state alone, sixteen prisoners were reported dead in unnatural circumstances. In Arunachal Pradesh, nearly two people found dead in similar circumstances, while one each died in Nagaland and Mizoram.

While the representatives of the state governments, which have been ordered to pay the compensation, have asserted that they have taken enough steps to provide compensation on time, none of them has bothered to explain why such a huge number of unnatural deaths happens in their prisons (of the four, Assam has more obligation to clarify the reason for the unnatural deaths).

Vignesh. S. G

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