Thursday, January 23, 2025

Vidhu Kumar, Superintendent of Beur Jail Suspended, the story of Bihar jails so far

January 22, 2025: Vidhu Kumar, Superintendent of Beur Jail, Patna has been suspended. He had joined Beur Jail only six months ago. After the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) investigation, suspension action has been taken against Vidhu Kumar, who is accused in the disproportionate assets case. The Home Department (Prison), Bihar has issued orders related to this. EOU had raided his government residence, office and ancestral house in the first week of this month. During the suspension period, Vidhu Kumar's headquarters has been fixed as Buxar Central Jail. The department has issued instructions to prepare a charge sheet against the suspended jail superintendent and take departmental action. He is accused of acquiring illegal property worth crores. 

On January 4, 2025, the EOU had raided various locations of Vidhu Kumar after registering an FIR in disproportionate cases. In this context, Economic Offenses Police Station Case No. 01/25, dated January 3, 2025 has been registered. This Bihar Prison Service officer has been accused of having benami property worth crores of rupees. EOU had found many important documents and evidence in the raid. It has been reported that he owns disproportionate assets worth Rs 2.4 crore, which were 146% higher than his known sources of income. The raiding team  searched Vidhu Kumar’s ancestral house at Bishunpur under Bihta block in Patna district.

October 1, 2024: The Telegraph reported that inmates lodged at the Beur Central Jail in Bihar’s Patna embarked on an indefinite hunger strike from October 1 to protest the violation of the basic human rights and dignity of the inmates. They have formed a “prisoners’ agitation committee” to carry forth their struggle to demand proper facilities and alleged severe exploitation, repression and corruption by the jail authorities. They have pointed out that they were a mix of undertrials and convicts and were “agitating against the prison management for more than a month”. “We sent a memorandum to the Bihar governor, chief minister, Patna high court chief justice, state chief secretary, home secretary and other officials and went on a hunger strike on August 30. The prison officials promised to make amends and requested us to end it. However, they did not keep their word and started transferring the main leaders who had spearheaded the hunger strike,” the statement said. The letter alleged that a flourishing ecosystem of exploitation in the Beur Central Jail and contains grave allegations on its superintendent and other officials, ranging from extortion of ₹3,000 to 5000 per month from the prisoners and their families to provide them better food and facilities. It has also called for an independent probe into the charges. “The jail manual talks about 250gm rice and flour daily to an inmate, but only 150gm is provided by the jail administration due to which common prisoners are constant victims of hunger and malnutrition. Morning and evening breakfast, and special food items like milk on Monday, paneer on Wednesday, eggs on Saturday, and poori on Sunday have been stopped,” the letter said. The jail canteen charges up to twice the MRP (maximum retail price) for various things sold to the prisoners. Necessary medicines and a nutritious diet are not being provided to patients in the jail hospital, and money is fleeced from the inmates to send them to hospitals outside the jail for treatment. The letter demanded that all these issues be resolved, bring back the Maoists transferred to other jails, allow two STD phone calls every week, regular cleaning of toilets, mosquito nets and electric kettles be allowed and four water hand pumps be installed in every sector of the jail. Vidhu Kumar told The Telegraph: “These are baseless. There are no problems inside the jail.” 

30 June 2024:  Vidhu Kumar came to Beur jail after being transferred from Motihari Central Jail, Bihar. Although he is a Level 9 officer and not a Central Jail level officer but the Home Department ignored the rules and appointed him the Superintendent of Beur Jail, Bihar on 30 June 2024. Before becoming Beur Jail Superintendent, Vidhu Kumar had also held the post of Superintendent in Purnia, Madhubani and Katihar Jail. He has faced serious allegations in the past.

Also read: "Inhuman Conditions in Prisons" case pending in Patna High Court since June 2018 

Deplorable conditions of prisons in Bihar

IN RE- INHUMAN CONDITIONS IN 1382 PRISONS  

The status report-2015 on ‘prisons of Bihar’ revealed that the structures which the occupying imperial regime deemed fit for animals is being used to keep prisoners. The report was based on based on survey, Inspection and Analysis Made behalf of the Bihar State Legal Services Authority. 

NHRC had expressed its displeasure after it went through a report in the Indian Express published on September 17, 2007, on the dumping of the bodies of lynched men in Ganga by the Bihar cops. The Commission had already sent a notice to the DGP, Bihar and SSP, Vaishali, on the issue and found the ensuing incident distressing. The Commission took note of electronic media reports, which showed the bodies of the lynched men lying on the banks of Ganga near Hajipur instead of being given a proper cremation and asked for a factual report from the DGP, Bihar, within four weeks.




 

 

 

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