HC dismisses plea for action against prison officials

Chennai, Jul 17 (UNI) Madras High Court today dismissed a batch of petitions seeking a direction to take appropriate action against prison officials for alleged atrocities on the banned organisation Al-Umma leader S A Basha and others who are either under trial prisoners or accused in the Coimbatore serial bomb blast cases.

A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice P Sathasivam and Mr Justice V Dhanapalan dismissed the petitions by S A Basha and 122 others.

The petitioners are undertrial prisoners or accused in a case on the file of Special Court for exclusive trial of bomb blasts cases at Coimbatore and relatives of some of the accused.

They prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to produce the body and persons of the undertrial prisoners, to take both criminal and departmental action against the prison officials to ensure the protection and safety of the prisoners, to direct the jail authorities to permit the relatives/lawyers to interview them and to order investigation by human rights activists/lawyers on the alleged atrocities against the prisoners and submit a report.

In its order, the Bench said there used to be frequent altercation between the undertrial prisoners on the one hand and the jail authorities on the other. When the prison authorities conducted searches- physical and verbal, objections were made by the prisoners resulting in untoward incidents.

The Bench said on the materials placed they we are satisfied that the grievances in the petitions and complaints were attended to by the local sessions judge dealing with bomb blasts cases and higher officials of the jail department.

Hence they were not inclined to accede to the request for further investigation by human right activists or lawyers or any other team as claimed by the petitioners, the Bench added.

UNI XR VV RL VV1928