Relatives Imprisoned, Madhya Pradesh MLA Wants Jail Officials Sacked

A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA who is supporting the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has demanded the immediate transfer of two officials posted at the Damoh district jail for allegedly extorting money from the inmates there.

Rambai Thakur, who represents Patharia in the state assembly, met Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bala Bachchan in Bhopal on Wednesday and demanded that the superintendent and deputy superintendent of the prison be removed with immediate effect. Incidentally, Damoh district jail is where 16 of her relatives are currently lodged in connection with the murder of Congress leader Devendra Chaurasia on March 15.

"I've demanded the immediate removal of both top officials of the Damoh district jail, failing which I'll sit on dharna in front of the home minister's bungalow in Bhopal. The home minister has assured me of action in the next two to four days," she later told journalists.

However, sources at the jail department in Bhopal said that the BSP MLA's relatives had been "creating trouble" at all the prisons they were lodged in since their arrest for Devendra Chaurasia's murder. Initially imprisoned at the Hatta sub-jail in Damoh district, they were transferred to the Sagar Central Jail over complaints of misbehaviour with prison staffers. When more reports of disruptive activities emerged, they were again shunted to the Damoh district jail.

The Damoh district jail superintendent, in his defence, has told the Hatta Additional District and Sessions judge in a letter that the 16 relatives were creating an atmosphere of indiscipline in the facility. It even cited an incident on October 8, when one of them - Dipendra Thakur alias Golu - allegedly threatened to kill prison staffers and officers unless they were allowed a free run of the prison.

The prison officer went on to request that the 16 accused be shifted to some other facility for security reasons.

Sources in the jail department claimed that there was more to Rambai Thakur's request than what meets the eye. "The BSP MLA fears that her relatives will be transferred to some other jail, and is desperately trying to prevent that from happening by making false allegations of torture and extortion against prison officials. She did the same thing a few months ago, when her relatives were lodged at the Sagar Central Jail," an official told NDTV on the condition of anonymity.

Rambai Thakur is one among seven MLAs providing external support to the Kamal Nath government.