JMM MlA Sita Soren, who surrendered before the CBI court on Tuesday after a hiding for more than six months, was finally shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) cottage after she complained of chest and back pain when she was brought to the Birsa Munda Central Jail. Sita is one of the prime accused in the horse trading case during Rajya Sabha Elections of 2012.
Soren has been facing CBI probe in the horse trading case and has also been charge sheeted by the CBI along with five others, including independent candidates RK Agrawal, Pawan Kumar Dhoot, Sunil Maheswari, her father BM Majhi and her former aide Rajendra Mandal in June last year. “Taking precautionary measures, we have admitted her as she complained of severe chest and back pain yesterday after she was taken to the jail, said Cardiologist Dr Hemant Narayan under whose supervision she is undergoing treatment.
When asked about the condition of the MlA, Dr Narayan said that for a doctor she is also just like another patient to him. As of now, taking no chances, we are taking it seriously. Anything could be said keeping her under observation for some time,” he added. Sita has been lodged in cottage number 14 of RIMS and has been kept under tight security. According to the medical prescription, Sita Soren has a blood pressure of 136/90 who is also suffering from hypothyroidism. Since, she has a family history of coronary heart disease; doctors have recommended her to be admitted in the hospital.
Remarkably, RIMS cottage has been a safe haven for those high profile inmates of Birsa Munda Central Jail, who generally fall ill after being lodged in the Jail. According to a nursing staff, the jail inmates brought to the cottage for serious ailments have been found venturing in the corridors of the highly protected cottage, the next morning. “As it does not give an impression of being in the jail, who also get a VIP treatment here, with all sort of facilities like 24 hour visiting guests attracts the so called high profile jail inmates,” said a nursing staff. Moreover, it has also become a status symbol among the politicians to get admitted here after being booked in any case, dodging both to the administration and the judiciary.
“We have seen as many as 8 politicians here at a time which has a total of 14 cottages including two AC rooms - 13 and 14, Sita is in cottage 14. Another prisoner, Jitendra Mahto is also here, who is undergoing life imprisonment in connection with a murder case. Notably, taking a serious note of the fact that a number of high-profile prisoners of Birsa Munda Central Jail were seeking refuge in RIMS, on the pretext of illness to avoid jail, the Jharkhand High Court taking suo motu cognizance on the basis of a news reports published in newspapers last year, had ordered the RIMS superintendent to file a detailed report on these prisoners and their respective ailments for which they were undergoing treatment at the hospital.
The court had also directed the inspector-general (prisons) to co-ordinate with the commandant of the military hospital in Namkum to have the influential prisoners examined by a medical board of Army doctors.