Amritsar, October 25
Frail and dressed in blue, Jagan Nath (87), who was shifted from Lahore’s mental hospital to Amritsar in 1948 - a year after the Partition, gives an impression of a character of Urdu writer Sadat Hassan’s famous story - “Tobha Tek Singh”.
The grey-haired Jagan Nath, who is still languishing in Dr Vidya Sagar Mental Hospital, here for the past 59 years does not know even the name of Pakistan, though he was arrested from Karachi on charges of wandering in 1946 and spent two years in three mental hospitals of Pakistan.
The record of Lahore’s hospital, which too was sent to Amritsar, described the conduct of Jagan Nath as good. Jagan Nath was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment in 1946 on charges of
wandering.
The Supreme Court order on the closure of cases against all those who had remained in judicial custody for more than the period of their sentences is unlikely to benefit Jagan Nath. Reason: His entire family is believed to have been killed in the communal frenzy of the Partition. Though he had completed his one year sentence in pre-Partition days, he still is living in his own world.
Like Jagan Nath , there are some other patients in the hospital who are unlikely to be discharged from the hospital since there was no record of their residences available with the hospital. B.L. Goyal, director of the hospital, said such patients who had been cured could be discharged anytime if their relatives approached the hospital.
Then there is “Ashik”, who had crossed over to India from Pakistan and completed his sentence under the Passport Act long ago. He may not be repatriated to Pakistan because his country had to come forward to establish his identity.
There are three other inmates who should have been discharged from the hospital on the orders of high court but they are still languishing in the hospital since their relatives are not coming forward to take them home.
According to the authorities of the Institute of Mental Health, reports on the mental condition of the inmates who are fit to be released are regularly sent to the authorities concerned.
Earlier, Raksha Rani, a chronic schizophrenic, was released after nearly 20 years in judicial custody on the intervention of the high court. The court had taken up the case on the basis of the letter written by Goyal.
A resident of Alorakh village in Sangrur district, she was arrested in 1983 for allegedly murdering her husband Hardayal Singh. She was admitted to the institute in 1984. She gave birth to a girl, Meenu, while in judicial custody. Luckily, the daughter and sons-in-law of Raksha
Rani came forward to take her back.
