The State Home and Prison Department has issued a show cause notice to the Ghaghidih jail superintendent Nagender Singh over a report citing post Covid complications as the cause of death of Mother Teresa Welfare Trust founder Harpal Singh Thapar inside the jail.
The 46-year-old undertrial, who was in the central jail since June 16, fell terribly sick at the prison ward at about 2 am, leading the fellow inmates to raise an alarm. The jail administration soon shifted him to the jail hospital but as his condition continued to deteriorate, the administration rushed him to the medical college hospital in Sakchi where he succumbed to his illness at about 4 am.
According to information, the department has rejected the report that Thapar had health issues. It is suspected that he was tortured inside jail for money and other reasons which led to injury marks on his body. Suspicion grew when there were injury marks on back and leg and several portions of the body had turned blue.
The department has showcaused the jail superintendent for trying to hide the facts and not informing the senior officials.
Jharkhand jail IG, Manoj Kumar said that the jail superintendent has been shown cause in connection with the death of Harpal Thapar and on the initiative of the prison department a judicial probe has also begun in the case. The Jamshedpur district court has deputed two magistrates for probing the case.
Thapar along with three others, including his wife Pushpa Rani Tirkey were arrested on June 16 for allegedly indulging in a molestation case with the Telco police station on June 6.
Both Thapar and his wife would run a shelter home under Mother Teresa Welfare Trust at Kharangajhar in Telco. Two of the minor inmates of the shelter home had alleged Thapar and a 20-year-old youth, Aditya Singh, to have molested them after fleeing from the shelter home on June 5. The minors had alleged Pushpa Rani who is also chairperson of Child Welfare Committee, Jamshedpur and another woman Geeta Kaur of forced labour..