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| Pankaj Kumar Pal |
IG (prisons) Ramesh Lal and Gopalganj district magistrate Pankaj Kumar Pal were transferred after home secretary Amir Subhani submitted his preliminary report on the Sunday night killing of Budhdeo Singh, 59.
Lal was removed from the post on his last day in office. The government also issued showcause notices to district magistrate Pal and superintendent of police K.S. Anupam.
Jail superintendent Ashok Kumar and jailor Krishna Singh have been suspended and departmental proceedings initiated against them.
Pal has been asked to join the agriculture department as joint secretary. He will be replaced in Gopalganj by Pankaj Kumar, at present special secretary, agriculture. Lal will be replaced as IG (prisons) by IAS office Anand Kishore.
Subhani was assigned by chief minister Nitish Kumar to probe into the incident, the first of its kind in the state, and submit a detailed report.
Nitish accepted that administrative failure had led to the murder. “We will not tolerate such an incident and the erring officials will not be spared,” he said.
The chief minister said the report submitted by the home secretary had pointed out serious lapses on part of the jail and the district administration.
Budhdeo Singh, the youngest brother of former Chhapra MP Satyadeo Singh, had refused to issue a fake medical certificate to Ranjan Yadav and his associates, who were serving life term in the jail after being convicted by a local court in connection with a kidnapping case. The inmates wanted to get the certificate to prevent the prison authorities from shifting them to the high-security central jail in Buxar.
“On the day of the incident, two jail officials — the superintendent (in-charge) and the warden — were on leave. The absence of the two senior officials at the time shows that there were serious lapses on part of the jail administration,” Nitish said.
He wondered how the two senior officials were allowed to proceed on leave on the same day.
Referring to the lapses on part of the Gopalganj district magistrate, who happens to be the custodian of the jail in the district, the chief minister said the officer reached the spot late and he did not even bother to make an on-the-spot inspection after the incident.
Nitish said the government would launch an investigation to look into each aspect of the incident.
“As per the jail manual, if any inmate is convicted by a court, he should be transferred to the central jail in the state. In the case of Ranjan Yadav and his associates, the prescribed rules were not followed. The transfer order was issued in April itself. Even then why were Ranjan and his accomplices not shifted? Obviously this is a big failure of the jail administration,” Nitish said.
He said the murder has brought to the fore some larger issues which the state government would look into. The chief minister also wondered how the jail doctor visited the prisoners’ ward alone. He also questioned why the doctor didn’t blow a whistle alerting the jail staff when he was attacked by the inmates.
The chief minister announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the slain doctor’s family and a job on compassionate grounds. In addition, the family would be paid Budhdeo Singh’s last drawn salary till retirement. The doctor was to retire from service within six months.
