Kendrapada SP Satish Kumar Gajbhiye on Wednesday asked the Kendrapada Sub-Jail Superintendent to make arrangements to provide education and better healthcare to a four-year-old girl, who is staying with her prisoner mother in the sub-jail. Gajbhiye said he saw the girl, Punam Patnaik, moving in the jail premises on the Republic Day on Monday. He knew from jail officials that Punam had been staying with her mother Rina Patnaik, a murder case under-trial.
Punam’s bigamist father Bijay Pattanaik and mother Rina (Bijay’s second wife) had allegedly killed his younger brother, nephew and niece on their sleep in the night of on October 2, 2012 at their house in Talagaon village under Karilopatana GP of the Patkura police station over a land dispute. Since then, Punam has been staying with Rina in the sub-jail.
Considering that the girl has reached the school going age and should be provided better environment, Gajbhiye wrote a letter to Sub-Jail Superintendent Biren Sahu on Wednesday asking him to send the girl to any playschool or nursery school regularly by a hired vehicle and meet the expenditure from the Child Welfare Committee.
According Gajbhiye, Rina has expressed her unwillingness to put Punam in a hostel. When contacted, the Sub-Jail Superintendent said the child has been taken care of by the jail authority inside the jail.