Jails fight shy to house AIDS patient

Itarsi, MP, May 16 (UNI) A local court today came to the rescue of a 20-year-old AIDS-afflicted undertrial -- who was being made to run from pillar to post -- by ordering the Inspector-General (Prisons) to house the victim in the Bhopal Jail.

The youth, arrested on May 6 by local police for an old case of theft of two-wheelers, hailed from Harda district. Neither did anybody come forward to furnish the bail amount nor was any prison prepared to take him in.

''The court initially ordered that I be incarcerated at Hoshangabad but the jail superintendent refused to house me as he knew of my ailment,'' the patient said.

He was sent here and then to Bhopal's Hamidia Hospital where admission was refused. The victim was presented before Judicial Magistrate Prayaglal Dinkar today.

''Two years back, I was falsely implicated for stealing two-wheelers. After being incarcerated for about five-and-a-half months, I secured a temporary job at Harda. Though I never indulged in intercourse, I was suspected with AIDS at a Harda hospital some months back,'' he narrated.

In December 2005, Hamidia Hospital confirmed the case and doctors said that an infected syringe was most likely the causative factor.

UNI XC-AC PK VC2112