Two HIV-positive prisoners have expired due to lack of medication in jail. This is a result of having inadequate medical staff and incapable police officers.
The rise in the number of HIV-positive cases among prisoners has irked the Bombay high court. Hearing a petition filed by an undertrial suffering from tuberculosis and Aids seeking discharge from the Arthur Road jail, Justice SC Dharmadhikari on Wednesday firmly told the government to provide all necessary medical facilities to such prisoners.
“Two HIV-positive prisoners have expired due to lack of medication in jail. This is a serious issue, and I do not appreciate this. Highest officers of the government have been summoned by this court earlier, but these issues keep surfacing,” the judge said.
Dharmadhikari had pulled up the state’s principal secretary in December — he was on a division Bench then with former Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar — for not providing the required medical facilities to HIV-positive prisoners.
“This is a result of having inadequate medical staff and incapable police officers,” Dharmadhikari said on Wednesday. The court called for medical reports of the petitioner and directed the jail superintendents to file an affidavit by January 18, stating the medical facilities provided to such prisoners.
Earlier, the government had told the court that the government was conducting walk-in interviews to fill in the vacant posts of doctors, but was not getting adequate response.
The court was told by advocates Yug Chaudhry and Rajesh Bindra, representing two other HIV-positive prisoners, that prison hospitals had only height and weight measuring machines. Some of the sick jail inmates were sleeping on floor. Bindra added that 13 HIV-positive inmates died in prison in 2008, and 13 more deaths were reported till August 2009.
The petitioner told the court that he was languishing in the Arthur Road jail for the past 15 months. “I am the sole bread-earner of my family. My wife and father died last year. Now, my old mother is taking care of my three children. My case has been pending for the past 15 months, and I am suffering from TB and HIV,” he said.
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