'Chronicle of a Death Foretold': PUDR Condemns the Death of Altaf Ahmad Shah

Altaf Ahmad Shah's death underlines that such chronicles will repeat themselves unless jail conditions are improved

Ruwa Shah and her father Altaf Ahmad Shah.

(Photo: Ruwa Shah/Facebook)

Jailed undertrial leader Altaf Ahmad Shah (66) is dead. His death does not come as a surprise. By the time he was diagnosed with advanced renal cancer on 30 September at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLA) and shifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on the evening of 5 October, it was already too late.  

The doctors at AIIMS could not begin treatment because Shah was already on life support and his body was too weak to withstand treatment.

Altaf Ahmad Shah’s death was totally avoidable. Cancer doesn’t develop overnight. His daughter had drawn attention to his advanced diabetes, hypertension, and other comorbidities in May 2020 in the context of the temporary release of prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

From August 2022, Shah’s health rapidly worsened. He began to suffer chronic pain.

The Tihar Jail authorities dithered between the Jail hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDU), finally shifting him to RMLA in the third week of September when he was already on ventilator.

The Saga of Delays

Even after the renal cancer, which had metastasised into his lungs and bones, was detected more than a week later, the jail authorities took another five days to shift him to AIIMS on the evening of 5 October. On 4 October, the Delhi High Court had ruled that Shah be immediately shifted to AIIMS, but the jail officials delayed it by another day.   

The saga of delays and negligence is further underlined by the medical report from RMLA dated 3 October, which stated that it was being issued in response to a request from the NIA on 1 October. The report concluded:

“Currently the patient is critically ill with multiple organ dysfunction requiring life-support (ventilator  and Intropic support). The patient requires oncology support and PET scan which are not available in our hospital, therefore patient needs to be shifted to a centre abovementioned facility (sic)."

Questions immediately arise as to why didn’t RMLA make the report available earlier, given Shah’s critical condition and the lack of facilities;  why did the NIA not pursue the matter with RMLA though the case for transfer was to be heard on 3 October and finally, why did the NIA contest the transfer before the high court on that day on the grounds that the medical report wasn’t available?

The answer might lie in the fact that Altaf Ahmad Shah was a political prisoner, that too from Kashmir. His death is yet another instance of the routine violation of the rights of political prisoners and those arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Plight of Political Prisoners Booked Under UAPA

Some of the deaths of political prisoners which received media attention are those of Kanchan Nanaware (38) of a botched-up brain surgery in January 2021, Stan Swamy (83) due to COVID-19 in July 2021, Pandu  Narote (33) of swine flu in August 2022, Altaf Ahmad Shah (66) of cancer in October 2022.

Imprisoned at central jails – Yerwada Central Jail, Taloja Central Jail, Nagpur Central Jail, and Tihar Central Jail – respectively, where medical facilities are supposedly better, they still fell prey to medical negligence.

The similarities are striking: all the victims were accused under the UAPA, all were undertrials with the exception of Narote whose case was up for appeal, all were denied bail including medical bail.

The families were also not allowed to intervene: Ruwa Shah was allowed to meet her father only when he was shifted to AIIMS, Kanchan’s and Pandu’s families were also allegedly not informed about their medical condition for a long time.

In the well-known Bhima Koregaon cases where families have had to constantly approach the courts for every small health issue, Vernon  Gonsalves had to beg with folded hands to be taken to a hospital other than the jail hospital.

The vulnerability of prisoners under the UAPA is inbuilt into the law. With bail being close to impossible under UAPA, the dependence of UAPA detenues  on jail authorities is absolute.

The NIA’s arguments for contesting bail remain the same: that the offence is heinous, that there is prima facie evidence of guilt, that the accused would tamper with evidence if given bail, that the ill prisoner could be treated within the Jail hospital, and if the need arose, the jail authorities would shift the patient to hospitals outside.

This logic informs other institutional responses too.  

What Altaf Ahmad Shah's Death Shows & What Needs To Be Done Now

The NIA courts routinely turn down bail on this basis. Significantly, the High Powered Committee on decongesting prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic in its order excluded those accused of terror crimes from temporary release, their age and comorbidities notwithstanding, thus prioritising the yet to be proved crime over the prisoner’s rights to health and life. Such deaths due to systemic medical negligence on the part of jail authorities and the absence of all accountability, makes these cases of custodial violence. That too with State sanction.

The death of Altaf Ahmad Shah foretells or rather underlines that such chronicles will repeat themselves unless jail conditions are improved, jail authorities held accountable, bail made a right, and the accused not singled out for their political beliefs.

PUDR demands :

1. Registration of criminal cases against the Jail Superintendent and Medical Officer(s) of Tihar Jail

2. Enquiries against DDU and RMLA Hospitals for negligence

3. Medical bail be made a right for all prisoners

4. Compensation to families of all prisoners who die in judicial custody

(Deepika Tandon and Shahana Bhattacharya are secretaries at Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR). This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses them, nor is responsible for them.)