An under trial prisoner (UTP) and rape accused escaped from Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK), as the poor infrastructure at the hospital turned out to be the main reason for the escape.
A day after the escape of the UTP, NHAK authority held a meeting on July 23 to take stock of the situation and decided that henceforth all UTP patients would be examined by senior doctors and that all the UTP patients would be subjected to thorough medical examination before they were admitted at the hospital.
The meeting resolved that medical history of all UTP patients would be carefully scrutinised before their admission, besides deciding that security personnel would henceforth bear the responsibility of securing the UTP patients and not the hospital management.
It may be recalled that the accused, Sabir Ahmed was on trial for rape and murder and had escaped from NHAK on July 22 after being admitted in UTP cell on medical ground.
Ahmed was on trial for allegedly raping and murdering a 51-year-old woman in Kohima in March last year and was arrested by the Nagaland Police from Aizawl and a case registered against him at the women police station here.
Interacting with Nagaland Post, NHAK managing director (MD) Dr Thorhusie Katiry said the UTP was admitted in the emergency room after complaining of vomiting blood and was subsequently admitted at the hospital for endoscopic examination on June 28.
According to the MD, Ahmed was hospitalised for more than seven times between June 26 and July 22 on various medical grounds. However, on examination, he was found to be normal and managed to escape that fateful day through a toilet that was under construction. He said UTP used to give lame excuses each time the doctors checked him just to extend his stay at the hospital.
Apparently, the accused was not even handcuffed during his stay at hospital that made his task of escaping easy.
Katiry asserted that the hospital authority was not responsible for the security of UTP patients, except providing medical care.
The NHAK MD opined that the district jail must have a medical officer to attend to the inmates and treat minor ailments before admitting them to the hospital.
He alleged that most UTP patients were brought to the hospital after OPD hours in the emergency ward, which compelled the hospital authority to admit the patients for thorough examination the next day.
Claiming that there was no State that had a hospital with UTP cell attached except Nagaland, Katiry proposed that the UTP cell should be upgraded as it was dilapidated and needed special attention of the government to stop “human misadventure” and avoid natural calamities. He also suggested separate rooms for male and female UTP patients at the hospital.
Currently the UTP cell can hardly accommodate eight persons and has no separate rooms for male and female prisoners.
He said though NHAK authority had approach the State home department two years ago with a proposal to set up a separate cell for UTPs, there was no response till date.
NHAK’s site engineer told this correspondent that the accused managed to escape through a septic tank that was being constructed around 1.45 pm when labourers were having a tea break, adding that the UTP cell did not have attached toilet.
He said repair work was taken up after a complaint was received from police personnel on duty at the UTP cell as the septic leakage made it impossible for them to perform duties. After discovering the leakage in the water closet and septic lines, construction began, he added.
According to the engineer, he had cautioned the police personnel to take necessary precautionary security measures before the start of the construction work, adding that the hospital was not at fault for the escape of the rapist.
He also suspected that the accused must have had experience as a construction labourer that enabled him to escape easily.
Meanwhile, the police have launched a massive manhunt to nab the accused and activated all the check gates. However, there is no clue yet about his whereabouts.