ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Tamil Nadu prisons, where riots are waiting to happen

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

At least eight persons, including a deputy warder, were killed when inmates of the Madras central prison went on a rioting-spree this morning. Eleven others were injured in the violence.

Trouble started in the prison when a report went around that an inmate had died while being taken to the hospital. Police sources claim it was a suspected case of cholera. Whatever the cause, the prisoners are believed to have been provoked by the delay of the jail authorities in admitting the victim to the General Hospital, which happens to be situated very close by.

What, however, took the jail authorities by surprise was the suddenness of the prisoners' attack. When the prisoners were let out of their cells in the morning for their daily chores they started attacking their wardens and the jailers who came to their rescue.

The wardens were caught unawares. The inmates reportedly used whatever came their way though details of the assault are still awaited. When their attempts to control the mob violence inside the prison failed, the jail authorities summoned the riot-police, who opened fire right away.

Tension soon spread outside the prison walls as the news of the incident leaked. Police personnel were brought in in large numbers, for crowd-control and as a measure of precaution. People were perched on top of the adjoining high-rise buildings to get a glimpse of what was happening inside the prison compound.

The city police is also keeping a close watch on the North Madras suburbs, which is where 'Boxer' Vadivelu, the inmate whose death sparked the riot, hails from. A dada of some notoriety, he had been detained under the Goondas Act as part of a ''cleansing operation'' being launched by the city police under the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government.

However, this is not the first time that riots have broken out in prisons in Tamil Nadu or the Madras prison in particular. Lately, it has become a regular feature in most of the high-security prisons in the state -- one happened in Madras not long back though there were no casualties then. The police and prison authorities blamed the jailed Islamic fundamentalists as the main cause for that incident.

The city police had a tough time handling the prison riot, what with the opposition parties in the state launching a 'Raj Bhavan march' elsewhere in the city later in the day. The march -- in which the All India Anna DMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress came together for the first time -- being held under the auspices of the Dalit Panthers party, is in protest against the anti-dalit violence in the Chidambaram parliamentary constituency during the recent Lok Sabha polls.

With the state assembly having commenced its winter session this morning the jail deaths come in handy for Karuniniudhi's opponents and are bound to disrupt proceedings in the House in the coming days.

As may be recalled, the Justice S A Kader Commission, which went into the earlier prison riots in Madras in 1996, had given detailed recommendations on prison conditions and jail administration. Insiders say that the report has not been acted upon at all.

SEE EARLIER REPORT: 8 die as cops open fire to quell jail rioting

Tell us what you think of this report