Delhi gang-rape accused Ram Singh’s alleged suicide in the high security Tihar jail, which houses over 12,000 prisoners, is the third such incident in the last 15 months. The jail had reported a total of 18 deaths including two suicides in 2012.
“There have been 18 deaths in Tihar jail in 2012 out of which 16 were natural while two were cases of suicide,” said Vimla Mehra, Director General (Prisons), addressing a Press conference recently. A senior jail official said Singh’s suicide is the first such incident this year while another inmate had died due to natural causes. He said magisterial inquiries are conducted into every death that takes place inside the jail premises.
According to a 2012 report by Tihar Jail psychiatrists in the Delhi Journal of Psychiatry, there were 18 suicides in Tihar Jail between 2001 and April 2012. All of them were pre-trial verdict inmates.