In twin developments relating to the death of an inmate and subsequent riot in Mumbai’s Byculla women prison, a special CBI court on Tuesday directed the prison authorities to produce inmate Indrani Mukherjea before it on Wednesday after she complained of assault by the jail officials, while Maharashtra State Women’s Commission sought report on Manjula Shetye’s alleged murder.
In an application made on behalf of her client before the Special Judge JC Jagdale, Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangla said, “During my meeting with my client, I saw injuries and bruises on her hands and legs in during riots indulged in by a section of prison officials at the Byculla women’s prison. Based on her instructions, I moved an application before the court. The court ordered the prison authorities to produce my client before the court tomorrow”.
In the application filed by Mangala on her behalf, Indrani claimed that she had been threatened with sexual assault in jail. She also explained as to how she sustained injuries during the prison violence on Saturday last.
Indrani moved the CBI court two days after she and 290 others were booked rioting and assaulting the jail staff, in the wake of a riot allegedly indulged in by the prisoners, including her, at the Byculla women jail staged a violent protest against the death of convict Manjula, on Friday night. Manjula had succumbed to injuries that she had suffered in her head, lungs and liver on Friday night.
Meanwhile, taking suo moto cognizance of the alleged murder of convict Manjula, the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission directed Additional Director-General of Prisons BK Upadhyay to submit a detailed report before the Commission on June 29 on the circumstances leading to the death of the convict lodged at the Byculla women prison on Friday night.
Confirming the development, MSWC chairperson Dr Vijaya Rahatkar told The Pioneer on Tuesday night, “What has happened at the Byculla prison is very serious. We have taken suo moto cognizance of the incident. We have called for a detailed report on the circumstances leading the convict’s death, from the Additional Director-General of Prisons on June 29”.
Trouble broke out in the Byculla women jail on Saturday morning after Manjula, a resident of Bhandup in north-east Mumbai who had been serving life sentence in Pune’s Yerwada for the murder of her sister-in-law in 1996 and was recently shifted to Byculla jail, died hours after she was thrashed by the jail officials on Friday night. A post-mortem conducted on Mahjula’s body revealed that she had died of “multiple contusions and pulmonary edema”.
Having initially registered a case of accidental death initially, the Nagpada police booked six women jail staffers — Manisha Pokharkar, jailor, Bindu Naikode, Waseema Shaikh, Sheetal Shegaokar, Surekha Gudve and Aarti Shingane, all guards on Saturday night for murder — for allegedly beating Manjula to death, after the post-mortem report arrived. Pending a full-fledged inquiry, all the six jail staffers were suspended for alleged dereliction of duty.
After the news of Manjula spread within the Byculla women jail which houses more than 350 women inmates and at least 25 children who stay with their jail inmate-mothers inside the prison, nearly 290-odd women prisoners — including Indrani — climbed up the two-storey terrace of the jail building and staged a protest.
The protesters set books, newspapers and clothes on fire and shouted slogans against the prison officials. They also reportedly clashed with the jail staffers who tried to quell the rioters.
In a related development, Advocate Nazneen Khatri. President - Women’s Cell, Jai Ho Foundation, moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, seeking the transfer of the Manjula Shetye murder case to the CBI or any other special investigative agency for a fair probe.
In her application, she also urged the court to shift the eyewitnesses to other jail in view of the fact that the jail authorities would threaten the witnesses to change their statements.
She also urged the court to quash the cases registered against 291 jail inmates, including Indrani, for rioting, assault and mischief and that the family of the deceased convict be adequately compensated.