The Jharkhand High Court has raised serious concerns over the health and safety of inmates in state prisons after a prisoner lodged in Dhanbad Jail was found HIV positive while in custody.
The court has summoned top officials, including the Director of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, the Superintendent of Hazaribagh Central Jail, and the in-charge Medical Officer, to appear in person for the next hearing.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, his client was first lodged in Dhanbad Jail in June 2023. In January last year, an ELISA test confirmed the inmate was HIV positive. Following conviction in his original case, he was transferred to Hazaribagh Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan Central Jail where he was referred to the centre for treatment.
“We applied for bail on medical grounds, but the High Court’s concern went beyond that… The judges asked whether this infection existed before jail, or did it occur inside? If it happened inside, that indicates gross negligence and raises a much larger issue,” the counsel told The Indian Express.
The Bench, comprising Justice S. N. Prasad and Justice Sanjay Prasad, also raised the question of whether other inmates may have been put at risk during the undetected period. The court asked prison and health authorities to submit detailed records of pathological tests conducted over the past six months, including the number of inmates screened.
The petitioner’s counsel alleged that the authorities attempted to place loose documents before the court without filing proper affidavits, which only deepened judicial suspicion. He added that authorities initially claimed that the prisoner had refused to undergo an HIV test when first taken into custody, but later tested positive in January this year.
“But that doesn’t stand to reason. He is a 22-year-old boy and the greater likelihood is that he was subjected to sexual assault inside jail,” he alleged.
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Calling it not only a larger systematic issue but also a human rights violation, the court has now sought accountability from the state on the quality of prison healthcare and preventive protocols for communicable diseases.
The matter will next be heard on September 25, when the officials have been ordered to appear with a comprehensive report.
