Another undertrial dies in Burdwan

burdwan: a 25-year-old undertrial, sheikh ismail, died under mysterious circumstances inside burdwan jail early tuesday morning. this is the fourth such incident in the district in as many months. activists of the trinamul congress gheraoed the jail super, p.roy, for several hours and later gave him a deputation urging a high-level inquiry into the death.the burdwan sadar thana police had arrested ismail, a resident of kaliganj in nadia district, eight days ago for stealing a bicycle. according to the jail super the warden found him hanging from the ceiling of his cell with a gamchha (towel). however, the super refused to reply questions on how the undertrial acquired the material and why the incident went unnoticed by the guards. golam jargis, convener of the district trinamul congress alleged there were no marks on ismail's neck but bloodstains were found on his feet. even the victim's tongue had not come out proving that this was not a case of suicide but one of pure murder. ironically, the custody death occurred the day state jail minister biswanath chowdhury visited burdwan to attend an inauguration ceremony. it has been proved once again that there is no human rights in the state and even those living inside the four walls of the jail are not safe, jargis alleged. burdwan district magistrate, manoj agarwal was not available for comments since he is out of station. however, the sp of burdwan, b.n.ramesh, said he had asked for a report. last month, another undertrial, tapas thandar, died inside kalna jail. in august, another undertrial, jahir sheikh, had died similarly inside katwa jail. the same month, an undertrial, kalipahari, died inside the asansol special jail. these series of incidents have put a question mark on the functioning of the proposed 'sangsodhanagars' of the state government. recently, the amnesty international report had pulled up the state government for the high numbers of cases of human rights violation. cases.