Three writ petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court accusing the Puzhal central prison personnel of having thrashed some of the inmates after seizing mobile phones and ganja (cannabis) from their cells during a surprise inspection on January 10, 2025.
The petitions have been listed for hearing before a Pongal vacation Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Lakshminarayanan on Friday. They had been filed by P. Shameem Banu, S. Mumtaj and P. Prakash, the wife, mother and brother of prisoners Panna Ismail, S. Bilal Malik and P. Yokesh respectively.
In an affidavit filed through her counsel P. Pugalendhi, Ms. Mumtaj (74) of Nelpettai in Madurai city said, her son was an undertrial prisoner incarcerated since October 5, 2013. Eight cases against him were pending before a special court for bomb blast cases at Poonamallee.
He and his co-accused Ismail had been lodged in the sensitive block of the Puzhal central prison in Chennai. The petitioner said that a surprise raid was conducted across the prison complex on January 10 when two mobile phones were reportedly seized from the sensitive block.
Suspecting that the phones belonged to Ismail and Malik, the prison officials bet them up brutally and imposed the punishment of denial of interviews with relatives for a month, the petitioner complained and sought a direction to shift her son to Apollo Hospitals for treatment at her cost.
A similar plea was made by the other two petitioners too.
Published – January 17, 2025 12:14 am IST
