TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: A magisterial inquiry into the Aguada food poisoning incident has placed the blame squarely on the jail authorities for delaying urgent medical attention to affected murder convict Mahadev Gaonkar, which ultimately resulted in his death.
The 175-page report, submitted to the District magistrate Monday, has also ruled out deliberate foul play in the food contamination by rival jail inmates.
“There is no purposeful human involvement in the food poisoning case but Gaonkar’s death and several inmates taking ill are definitely because they consumed contaminated food prepared in the kitchen of Aguada Jail,” the report findings state.
The government had ordered a high level magisterial probe and appointed Additional District Collector Dipak Desai to inquire into the matter after Gaonkar died and over 40 prisoners lodged at Aguada Jail and Mapusa judicial lock-up were hospitalized hours after consuming dinner on May 30.
The inquiry officer pulled up the jail officials for not giving timely medical care to Gaonkar while he complained of ill-health.
“His life could have been saved had he been given medical attention on time. He was abandoned from 5am to 10:30am on the fateful day… The staff members are responsible for the delay
and jail authorities have neglected this,” the report laments.
The unhygienic kitchen, reptiles eating the cooked uncovered food, ruptured and rusted water pipeline running near sewage line are some lapses pointed out in the report.
“The kitchen was not cleaned for years together. Cockroaches and lizards freely moved around,” it says.
The report listed out five points of reference while also making 15 recommendations to prevent occurrence of such incident again. Some of these included the need to have doctors 24×7, 10-bedded hospital in the jail premise, hygiene training to jail officials, supervision of kitchen by guards during cooking hours, and monthly inspection of the kitchen by food and drugs administration (FDA).
The PWD has meanwhile nearly completed sanitizing the kitchen except for some minor civil works. An inspection by sub-divisional magistrate Sabaji Shetye and officials of FDA and public works department have granted conditional go ahead for the Aguada jail to cook food in its kitchen. The functioning is likely to resume this week only after the work is complete, Inspector General of Prisons Mihir Vardhan had told Herald.
Victim of food poisoning, convict Mahadev’s life could be saved had medical attention not been delayed
Kitchen not cleaned for years with reptiles feasting on the food
Ruptured water pipelines near sewage
