Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday initiated a public litigation suo motu on reports of sexual exploitation of a female inmate of Birsa Munda Central Jail by the superintendent of the jail.A division bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, while holding the vacation court, directed the state to file a detailed report in the matter. The court has ordered the director general of police (DGP) to file an affidavit and inform about the investigation done by the authorities.While recording its order, the court observed that the report of sexual exploitation of a female inmate by the superintendent of Birsa Munda Central Jail led to her becoming pregnant. Later, attempts were also made to terminate the foetus of the inmate. It was also pointed out that higher officials are trying to hush up the incident, the court said.Leader of opposition Babulal Marandi also wrote a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the high court mentioning the details of news reports as well as the fact that the female inmate was sexually exploited in the jail by the jail superintendent.The bench in its order on Friday observed, “The issue of such magnitude wherein the custodian of the welfare of the inmates has been alleged to have become the predator needs a proper and detailed response from the state as to what steps have been initiated to verify the truthfulness or otherwise of the allegations so made.”Meanwhile, the govt informed the court that a three-member committee of senior officials has been constituted to conduct an enquiry on the allegations made against the jail official. Simultaneously, a team of the district legal services authority led by judicial magistrate Shruti Soren has also been entrusted to conduct an independent enquiry. The case will be heard again on June 8.
