PIL to punish prison officials

CHENNAI: A writ plea to punish the Chennai Puzhal prison officials, who made three inmates nude and beat them up severely for not giving bribe, has been made in the Madras High Court.The first bench comprising Cheif Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam, before which the public interest writ petition from advocate P Pugalenthi, also director of Prisoners’ Rights Forum, came up for hearing yesterday, ordered notice returnable in two weeks.In his public interest writ petition, Pugalenthi submitted that Hari Prathapan,  Jeyaseelan and Mohammed Riaz were stripped of their clothes on December 4 last by the prison officials. They were also severely beaten up, as the trio had refused to bribe them. Petitioner alleged that the prison officials were demanding bribes ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 from the prisoners, who had involvement in cases relating to narcotic drugs. The trio was not given proper food and treatment for the injuries, petitioner added and prayed for a direction to the prison authorities to take appropriate disciplinary and criminal action against the officials.