Suicide and brain haemorrhage reported from Tihar jail

Ramesh Karmakar, an undertrial prisoner accused of murder, allegedly died by suicide in Tihar Jail after hanging himself from a window, jail officials said on Tuesday.

Karmakar, who was lodged in Jail Number 4, had been receiving medical treatment at the Tihar Jail Hospital in Jail Number 3 since May 28.

Advertisement

A senior official stated, “We found his body hanging from a window on Sunday night. The jail authorities were informed the following day.”

Karmakar had been taken into custody by the police in 2023 for allegedly murdering his partner after she reportedly threatened to reveal their extramarital affair to his wife. According to police, the deceased worked in housekeeping roles at hotels and restaurants.

He was admitted to the hospital on May 28 after complaining of vertigo, ear pain, and hearing loss, officials said. He was also under consultation with the neurology department at GB Pant Hospital and the ENT department at Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital.

In a separate incident, another inmate, Saquib Nachan, who allegedly had links with the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS), died due to a brain haemorrhage on June 28 at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

Nachan had been in judicial custody in Tihar Jail since 2023. He was admitted to the hospital shortly before his death, officials confirmed.

Convicted for his involvement in the 2002 and 2003 Mumbai bomb blasts, Nachan was described by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as a habitual offender and a self-styled ‘Amir-e-Hind’ of ISIS in India.

In 2023, the NIA conducted searches in Padgha as part of a nationwide crackdown on ISIS, leading to Nachan’s arrest along with several others. He was charged with being part of a conspiracy involving the recruitment and radicalisation of youth and the fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Delhi–Padgha ISIS terror module case.

The agency noted that he also collaborated with other accused in what became known as the Pune ISIS module case.

Earlier this week, sources said that Nachan’s son and lawyer had visited him in the hospital.

Nachan, previously convicted in 2016 for the Mumbai blasts, had completed a 10-year prison sentence before being released. He was later booked under multiple sections of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act, and the Explosive Substances Act for his alleged role in a wider ISIS conspiracy.