Tripura HC asks state govt to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to family of deceased jail inmate

PTI, May 22, 2022, 6:06 PM IST

A division bench of the Tripura High Court, upholding a single bench order, has asked the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next kin of a jail inmate, who died of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) due to medical negligence on the part of the correctional home.

Chandan Dey, who was serving a six-year rigorous imprisonment term at Central Correctional Home in Sipahijala district after being found guilty in a road accident, died of encephalitis in June 2017.

According to senior advocate Purushottam Roy Barman, Dey’s family members had filed a writ petition before the high court seeking justice for the death of the sole bread earner.

Roy Barman, who represented the family in the high court, said Dey, who worked as a driver before being jailed, was taken to GBP hospital in Agartala after he fell ill, but the doctors there referred him to SSKM hospital in Kolkata as his health condition worsened.

The inmate, however, was not taken to Kolkata and he died shortly after.

Justice S Talapata of the single bench, after hearing the case, had held the prison authorities responsible for the untimely death of Dey in January 2018 and asked the government to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next kin of the victim.

Jail authorities, however, moved the division bench of the court, challenging the single bench order ”A division bench comprising Justice Arindam Nath and Justice S Chattopadhyay on May 20 upheld the single bench’s order, asking the government to pay the compensation,” Roy Barman added.