Roshan Rai aka Yubin was jailed as he could not manage a bail amount of Rs 500,000. Later, he developed aplastic anemia - a kind of blood cancer - and the state incurred at least Rs. 2.2 million on his treatment. The law requires the government to bear all expenses incurred in the medical treatment of jail inmates.[break]
Rai was jailed for a murder committed a few years ago in Chitwan, and was released from Central Jail, Tripureshwar on November 5, after treatment for his disease.
Rai had been transferred to Dillibazar Jail from Chitwan in 2009 after he grew weaker, and later he was transferred again to Central Jail when his condition became more serious.
Rai´s treatment was one of the most expensive that the government has had to pay for. According to the Central Jail hospital, which is located within jail premises, the government spent more than Rs 2.2 million on Rai´s treatment on a regular basis until his departure from the prison.
Rai´s is just a case in point. A large number of inmates in Nepali prisons suffer from serious diseases. At present, there are hundreds of prisoners in different stages of illness who are undergoing treatment at different hospitals in Kathmandu.
Om Prakash Prajapati, who was jailed for drugs trafficking, and Bhim Babu KC, a murder convict, recently underwent surgery for heart valve replacement.
Dr Kedar Narsingh KC, medical superintendent of the jail hospital, said, “We have several prisoners suffering from serious disease of the lungs, heart, chest, kidney, skin, teeth and so on and they have undergone treatment at different hospitals despite the budget crunch. "If we had the doctors and the equipment, we could have minimized the expenses", he added.
The hospital has two doctors and 13 other staff along with facilities for OPD, X-RAY, ECG and minor dental care, and it serves about 40 jail inmate patients per day. But most of the cases have to be referred to hospitals like Bir, Gangalal, Maternity at Thapathali, Mental Hospital in Lalitpur and so on.
According to the hospital, the jail contains some disabled prisoners and some others suffering from communicable diseases. But all the inmates are compelled to live in the same cramped rooms, with no separate space for those with communicable diseases, said Homnath Thapaliya, jailor of Central Jail.
When a sick inmate reaches a critical condition at any of the 74 jails across the country, he or she is transferred to Central Jail. So, within a period of five to six months about nine inmates including two foreigners breathed their last while undergoing treatment, according to Thapaliya.
The deceased include Durga Singh Pulami of Beltar, Udaypur; Khadka Bahadur Tarami Magar of Hariharpur-3, Surkhet; Ramlal Tamang, Bhumisthan, Dhading; Fatima Khatun, Birjung-2, Parsa; Sanu Shrestha, Kumarighal-7, Kathmandu; Mohammad Ekwal of Pakisthan; Anuwat Sahib of Thailand; Nar Bahadur Shrestha, Dhuskun-2 in Sindhupalchowk; and Megh Bahadur Gelang Magar of Nawalparasi.
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