Bhagalpur, Oct. 21: Taking a serious note of the alleged third degree torture and subsequent death of an undertrial after he refused to clean a drain at the house of the superintendent of Bhagalpur special central jail, the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Bhagalpur has ordered the Tilka Manjhi police station to lodge an FIR against all the nine accused named in the complaint.

CJM, Bhagalpur, R. C. Malabiya, today ordered the police station to lodge FIRs against jail superintendent Jitender Kumar, jailer Birendra Kumar, one warden, three jail constables and jail doctors —Umashanker Singh, Ashok Kumar Jaiswal and Arun Kumar Singh — in connection with death of prisoner Dayanand Mandal on September 29, 2011.

Dayanand, a native of Pariya hamlet under Bariarpur police station in Munger and an accused in a theft case lodged with Jamalpur GRP, was forwarded to the special central jail, Bhagalpur, by Munger police on July 8, 2011.

Dayanand’s widow Sunita Devi, in her complaint lodged at the court of CJM, Bhagalpur, on October 14, alleged that the nine accused killed her husband for disobeying the jail superintendent’s order and later to bury their crime, they cooked up a suicide case. She also claimed that Dayanand was healthy and had no problems like blood pressure, sugar and heart ailments.

In her complaint, Sunita Devi alleged that the brother of her husband, Birju Mandal, went to the jail on September 27 to take the signature of Dayanand on bail papers obtained from Patna High court.

“My husband told Birju that he was facing threat from the jail officials. He (Dayanand) said he was taken to the house of the jail superintendent on September 21. There, he was beaten up mercilessly following his refusal to clean the drain and other garbage at the house,” she said.

“His (Dayanand’s) only fault was perhaps his objection to do filthy work which is also objectionable under the law,” said Rajesh Kumar Tiwary, Sunita’s counsel.

Officials at Tilka Manjhi police station said they are yet to receive any court order to lodge FIR against the nine accused. Jitender Kumar, however, refused the allegations levelled against him.

“It was a simple case of suicide. The undertrial was suffering from several diseases like depression. He hanged himself inside the ward out of frustration,” he said.

“A board of two doctors conducted the autopsy and the report clearly mentioned death by hanging. Besides, on the same day we lodged a case with Tilka Manjhi police station and requested the CJM, Bhagalpur, to conduct a judiciary inquiry into the case,” Jitender added.