Psychiatric aid in jail to be sought for Indrani Mukerjea

Mumbai: Jail authorities are planning to make available psychiatric treatment for Indrani Mukerjea, a key accused in the April 2012 Sheena Bora murder case, who is lodged in the Byculla women’s prison. They will soon write to the state home department seeking the services of a government psychiatrist to counsel Mukerjea as she suffers from ‘depression’. The state-run JJ Hospital, where Indrani was admitted late on Friday in a drowsy state, on Tuesday said that she is stable and responding to verbal commands and that her condition is improving.

Her urine toxin report from Hinduja Hospital tested positive for drugs primarily used for treating anxiety and insomnia. “She is stable and her vitals are improving slowly. The urine samples indicate excessive consumption of the drug but she is currently being treated for fever and pneumonia,” said Dr Sanjay Surase, medical superintendent of JJ Hospital.

On Monday, Inspector-General (IG), Prison, Rajvardhan Sinha started an internal inquiry to unearth whether there were lapses on the part of the jail staff that led to a drug overdose, which was the reason cited for Indrani’s illness that led to her admission in the hospital. A senior officer from the prison department told The Asian Age: “We are soon going to rope in a psychiatrist from government-run hospital to treat Indrani's condition which might help her to recover.”

Jail officials are probing how Indrani got access to the drugs. The medical reports stated drug overdose as the cause of her illness. The staff gave her medicines in jail and a diary entry was made. “We doubt that the overdose could have happened outside the prison when Mukerjea was taken for her hearing on Friday,” the officer said.

“Indrani is responding to verbal commands and responding well to treatment.She accepted the oral feed,” Dr Surase said. “Her neurological conditions are within normal limit, her temperature has also reduced and she is stable.” Speaking about her her urine samples, he said, “The screen A report is suggestive of positive for significant high titer-(amount of antibodies in the blood) of benzodiazepine and screen B is suggestive of negative for barbiturates — any of a class of sedative and sleep-inducing drugs derived from barbituric acid.