Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Nov 28: The high court has ordered the government of Karnataka to submit a detailed report on the unnatural deaths of prisoners that have taken place in the state between 2012 and October 2017.

The suo motu public interest litigation in this regard, filed by the high court, based on the Supreme Court's directive, came up for hearing in front of the divisional bench comprising of acting chief justice H G Ramesh and justice P S Dinesh Kumar on Monday November 27.

"There is no definite information available on the number of unnatural deaths of prisoners in the state," said senior lawyer, Dhyan Chinnappa, who is appointed as 'amicus curiae' in this case. To this, the bench responded by saying, "In such a case, we will start the inquiry only after the state government furnishes the report on the number of unnatural deaths of prisoners."

The bench directed M R Nayak, advocate general, to compile a comprehensive report giving details on the number of prisoners who have died abnormally during the period 2012 to October 2017 and to look into whether any compensation was given to such prisoners by the government. If given, then what is the total amount of the compensation, The next inquiry of this case will be on January 10, 2018.

The Supreme Court had directed the governments on September 15, 2017, to prevent unnatural deaths of prisoners and to provide compensation to the families of such prisoners after considering the fact that more than 500 prisoners have died abnormally in 1382 prisons throughout the country between 2012 and 2015.