Pak prisoner dies in Chandigarh hospital

CHANDIGARH: Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, injured in a scuffle with another inmate in a Jammu jail and admitted to PGIMER here, died Thursday morning, an institute spokesman said.

"The patient was brought in a brain dead condition and died this morning due to multiple organ failure," a PGI spokesman said here. The body has been shifted to the mortuary of the Institute from the ICU in the Advanced Trauma Centre.

52-year-old Sanaullah was airlifted from Jammu to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Friday.

The PGI spokesman said that it was a case of death in custody and a post-mortem will be conducted for which a medical board is being constituted.

"The post-mortem will be conducted by the medical board in the presence of a magistrate and videography will be done of the process," he said.

When asked about handing over of the body to the two relatives of Sanuallah, who arrived here on Tuesday from Pakistan, the spokesman said that it was for the Chandigarh administration and the Union Home Ministry to decide.

"The PGI will act on handing over of the body as per the instructions of the government," the spokesman said.

His condition had worsened yesterday following kidney failure and neurological problems.

"Patient has become extremely critical. He has developed renal failure with no urine output since morning. Hence he was put on peritoneal dialysis by Nephrologists," the bulletin issued last evening said.

A resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, Sanuallah was serving a life term after he was convicted under TADA provisions following his arrest in 1999.

He was injured in a scuffle with another inmate in the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and rushed to the PGIMER here in an air ambulance on Friday last.

The assault came a day after the death of an Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who was brutally attacked by fellow inmates in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail.