Chennai sources have stated that the alleged suicide of P. Ramkumar, the lone suspect in the Swathi murder case, in the Puzhal central prison-II here has raised several questions and many wonder how he got access to a live electric wire and whether the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) guidelines on the ‘Prevention of suicide in prison’ was adhered to in the Puzhal prison complex.
The prison authorities have claimed that Ramkumar has grabbed the live wire from a switchboard and bit into it and however, there was no eyewitness to this incident and people rushed to his rescue only after hearing an “unusual sound” and some question were being asked as how did the prisoner manage to access the switchboard and pull out a live wire?.
Meanwhile going by the NHRC guidelines, a comprehensive suicide prevention programme should have been rolled out in the Puzhal prison by roping in experts and imparting training to staff on emergency response in cases such as this.
It was stated that good Samaritans among jail inmates could be engaged to keep an eye on prisoners and alert the staff to pre-empt suicides and more importantly, the NHRC has recommended that a thorough audit of the jail premises be conducted to find out the probable places/areas and items that are prone to be used for committing suicide.
