NHRC seeks report over claims of jailed doctor treating inmates

The National Human Rights Commission has sought an action taken report from Orissa chief secretary over allegations that an undertrial doctor who is accused of chopping his wife into small pieces is treating other undertrials in Bhubaneswar jail.

The commission’s order has come in response to a complaint filed by human rights activist Akhand who alleged that routine health services and emergency healthcare in Bhubaneswar’s Jharpada Jail is being looked after by retired doctor of Indian Army, Colonel Somnath Parida.

In June 2013, police arrested Parida, a 71-year-old retired Army doctor who allegedly killed his 61-year-old wife and then chopped off her body into very small pieces before stashing them into small tiffin carriers. Since then he has been in Jharpada Jail waiting for his trial to end.

In his complaint, Akhand alleged that the doctor assigned to treat the 700 undertrials and convicts reaches the jail at about noon and leaves at 1 pm. He again comes at 4:30 pm and leaves at 5:30 pm. “That leaves health care in the hands of Colonel Somnath Parida. His assistant is another undertrial Hari, a sweeper of a clinic in the city who killed the owner of the clinic,” he alleged in his petition.

While the mental stability of Col. Parida has always been in question after the crime, the capability of sweeper Hari to discharge duties of a compounder is unacceptable by any standard of medical practice, he alleged. “The patients are left with little choice. They have to either take the chance of getting treated by an allegedly mentally unstable doctor and untrained compounder or not get treated at all,” he alleged.

Source:: Indian Express