UPDATE (India): Schizophrenic patient still detained in solitary confinement after six years

Dear friends, 

On 8 September 2008, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported on the case of Roy Varghese, a schizophrenic detainee held at Central Jail, Jaipur, Rajasthan, in urgent need of psychiatric treatment. Roy has been in custody since 1992 and despite repeated attempts by human rights defenders to improve his conditions, the government continues to keep him in solitary confinement and deny him mental health care. 

CASE DETAILS 

Roy Varghese is now 51 years old, and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for drug trafficking in 1992 by the Sessions Judge, Udaipur, Rajasthan (please see our previous appeal AHRC-UAC-199-2008). Nine years later he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Though Varghese finished his sentence, he could not be discharged from the hospital because he needed further treatment 

In 2003 Varghese allegedly set two mentally ill patients alight, causing their deaths, and he was charged with murder and culpable homicide. However after a medical exam he was pronounced unfit to stand trial. Since then he has been in limbo, detained without charge in Central Jail without hope of release or rehabilitation. He has been in solitary confinement without the treatment he needs for six years. At one point a rehabilitation centre in Bangalore was willing to accept Varghese, but prison authorities would not release him. 

After Sister Mariola, a catholic nun and human rights activist involved the AHRC and the National Human Rights Commission in Varghese’s case, a letter was written to the Director General of Prisons, Rajasthan on 9 February 2009 calling for a report. The complaint is pending, though on 30 April the NHRC informed the Sister that they had received a reply, but couldn’t divulge the contents. 

During this time the Rajasthan authorities have done nothing to improve Varghese’s situation, and the investigation looks set to drag. The AHRC does not expect the Commission or the prison authorities in India to expedite the hearing in Roy’s case—which requires an assessment by a medical board reported to the trial court—but the man needs treatment and access to a lawyer. 

The right to health is fundamental, whether a person has been convicted of a crime or not. Added to this, the prolonged detention of a person in solitary confinement, while being denied important medical treatment is considered torture under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which India has signed.

SUGGESTED ACTION

Please write to the authorities cited below, particularly to the National Human Rights Commission of India, requesting that Varghese’s court proceedings be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Please also demand that he receives immediate appropriate medical treatment for his condition and access to a lawyer. 

The AHRC has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Health and Question of Torture calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER