Court dismisses plea to move Vyapam accused to another prison

Indore: A special court in Indore on Monday dismissed a plea seeking shifting of 17 accused in the high-profile Vyapam scam to another jail from the district prison in the wake of the death of a prisoner, who was allegedly involved in the scam, in June. While turning down the plea, Judge D K Mittal said that he did not find it proper. [caption id=“attachment_2334262” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Vyapam website[/caption] Before dismissing the plea, the judge went through the report submitted by jail authorities to him. Earlier, the court had asked jail authorities to submit a report about prison infrastructure in support of their plea. In its report, authorities stated that the district jail was overcrowded since it houses 1,420 convicts and 954 undertrials even though its capacity is to hold 1,150 prisoners. It said that the prison merely had a 20-bed hospital for such a huge number of prisoners. The report stated that there were only two doctors and paramedical staff in the jail hospital. It stated that doctors aren’t available for prisoners round-the-clock. On 29 June late night, Vyapam accused Narendra Singh Tomar (29), who was in a critical condition, was rushed from the district jail to a local hospital where he died later. Jail authorities had claimed that Tomar died at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital during treatment, while his family members alleged that he was brought dead to the hospital. A judicial inquiry into the death of Tomar is on. PTI