Hyderabad: A 30-year-old West African woman prisoner was seriously injured in an attack by foreign prisoners at the Chanchalguda women’s prison on Tuesday.
Sources from the prisons’ department told DC that a quarrel took place between two groups in the foreign prisoners’ barrack and a 40-year-old prisoner from Thailand named Pinko attacked West African Elizabeth with a water jug. The victim suffered serious head injuries.
Prisons’ DIG A. Narsimhulu told DC that a quarrel took place between two groups of prisoners. “We shifted her to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) after first aid at the prison,” he said.
Women prison’s superintendent Basheera Begum said a complaint was lodged with the Madannapet police regarding the matter. “The victim was brought back to jail after treatment at OGH. We’ll take strong action against the accused,” she said. Both the accused and victim are undergoing 10 years imprisonment in narcotic cases. Elizabeth completed eight years of imprisonment and Pinko six years.
Due to staff shortage at the women’s prison officials have not been keeping tabs on prisoners. After the bifurcation of united AP, 12 women staffers were allocated to AP and eight to Telangana.
Out of the eight warders and head warders at the women’s prison, three are on leave due to health problems. At present there are only five warders working in two shifts at the prison. Out of this three are in the night shift and two in day shift.
The warders mostly confine themselves to duties at the main gate and do not keep tabs on the prisoners inside the jail. The prison’s superintendent and five warders, including two head-warders, are busy with additional duties. Prisons’ DG V.K. Singh had told DC earlier that he had written a letter to the government asking to fill up the 16 vacancies of women warders.
