Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh had warned PM Manmohan Singh of a backlash in the state if Bhullar was hanged and requested the PM and Home Minister to accord clemency to Bhullar on medical grounds.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court had rejected Bhullar’s lawyers’ plea to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. Interestingly, it was split verdict and the court didn’t consider his present mental health status. The medical board will likely consist of doctors from VIMHANS and AIIMS. If Bhullar is declared mentally unstable, that might pave the way for clemency because the law forbids hanging of mentally-ill patients.

Bhullar has been lodged at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS) for the last three years and is suffering from manic depression and is suffering from ‘depression with psychotic features’ and has exhibited suicidal behaviour on numerous occasions. A TOI report from 2011 suggests that he had tried to commit suicide at least twice in four months on IBHAS premises. Before that he had attempted to commit suicide several times in Tihar Jail.  The decision not to have a current medical report was lambasted by experts all over the country. Dr Nimesh Desai, Director of IHBAS, said: ‘As per norms, if and when there is an order by a court for medical opinion on any of our prisoners, we constitute a medical board that puts together a cumulative opinion. In Bhullar’s case, such a board was never constituted because there was no order from the judiciary.’

Who is Devinderpal Singh Bhullar?

Bhullar was a Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist who triggered a bomb blast at youth Congress office in Delhi in September 1993 which killed nine people and injured 25 others. The main target, Maninderjit Singh Bitta – an outspoken opponent of the Khalistan movement was injured in the attack. The Khalistan movement is a secessionist movement that wanted a separate nation called Khalistan for the Punjabi speaking populace.

A Stanford-trained physician, the filmmaker’s documentary was recently screened in Delhi. The main aim of the documentary was to prompt people to discuss mental health issues with greater maturity and get to the ‘core of the issue’.  ‘I felt a lot of shame growing up as a teenager when my father had these conditions. But, after he committed suicide in 2006 in front of me, I confronted myself and it made me want to go and understand the mental conditions of people around the world, so I made this film,’ says Delaney.

Her earlier film was a PBS documentary based on her father which won multiple awards.   ‘I came to India about two-three years ago for shooting this film and I couldn’t find a family willing to talk about mental health, until a family did agree to face the camera,’ says Ruston. ‘According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 450 million people globally suffer from mental disorders. Eighty per cent of them go without treatment and of the funds allocated, 1% finds it for mental health. And travelling to countries like India, known for strong family ties, I found the ‘affected’ being treated with equal disdain,’ she says.

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a condition that affects the patient by young adulthood and continues till old age, in almost all cases. It is a mental disorder that is characterized by breakdown of thoughts and poor social responsiveness. People with schizophrenia are likely to have additional conditions, including major depression and anxiety disorders. Almost 50% of the patients have a substance abuse problem. They experience social problems, such as long-term unemployment, poverty and homelessness. The most common symptoms that patients have are auditory hallucinations, paranoid behaviour, delusions, and disorder in speech and thinking. As this condition progresses it leads to social degradation or isolation. A diagnosis is usually based on observed behaviour and patients reports. As commonly thought schizophrenia does not imply a split personality, or a multiple personality disorder, rather, the term schizophrenia means a ‘splitting of mental functions’, so named because of what the patient presents.

On-screen example

Schizophrenia has often been portrayed onscreen, the most famous Bollywood example being Salman Khan-starrer Tere Naam but the movie did make it seem like all schizophrenics need an asylum which is not the case. The most famous Hollywood example was a film called The Beautiful Mind which documented the life of economics Nobel laureate mathematician John Nash played by Russell Crowe. 

Dr Nimesh Desai, Director of IHBAS, said: ‘As per norms, if and when there is an order by a court for medical opinion on any of our prisoners, we constitute a medical board that puts together a cumulative opinion. In Bhullar’s case, such a board was never constituted because there was no order from the judiciary.’

His doctors maintain that he is suffering from ‘depression with psychotic features’ and has exhibited suicidal behaviour on numerous occasions. A TOI report from 2011 suggests that he had tried to commit suicide at least twice in four months on IBHAS premises. Before that he had attempted to commit suicide several times in Tihar Jail.

The SC instead relied on a 2011 medical certificate produced by his counsel KTS Tulsi which gave an indication that the petitioner was suffering physically and mentally due to his prolonged detention in jail, and though the report suggested his mental health had deteriorated, the court’s finding was that it hadn’t deteriorated enough to the extent that the sentence awarded to him couldn’t be carried out.

Yesterday his lawyer Tulsi said, ‘My client’s doctors were never summoned to ascertain his medical condition… the few documents I submitted were part of the records the hospital sent to the jail in September 2011. No subsequent summons was issued to his doctors to take their opinion in the last two years.’ Tihar Jail officials have however, gone on record to say that Bhullar won’t be hanged until he’s declared ‘mentally and physically fit’.

What does the law state about executing the mentally-ill?

The UN Commission of Human Rights urges all states that maintain the death penalty ‘not to impose it on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder; not to execute any such person.’ In India, the capital punishment is reserved for those who have committed the most heinous crimes what the SC calls the ‘rarest of rare cases’ – crimes like rape amounting to murder or leading to the victim going into a vegetative state, abetting child suicide or killing a child, war against the nation and terrorist activities. In India, capital punishment is only given after a person has been analysed by a team of doctors to ascertain he is ‘mentally and physically fit’.

Is Bhullar really mentally ill or is he faking it?

Of course the abovementioned laws could lead to any individual claiming mental incompetence so that he/she can escape or delay capital punishment. However, Bhullar’s doctors claim that he has been put through a series of tests periodically to ascertain his mental status.  ‘To the best of our ability, we have made all possible efforts to rule out the possibility of him feigning mental illness.’

Bhullar has attempted suicide twice in the hospital bathroom and has attempted to do so before in Tihar jail. He was also being treated with anti-depressant drugs and was undergoing regular counselling, but he has only shown marginal improvement which makes it unlikely that he has been feigning his mental illness.

 ‘His cognitive abilities have improved and he is able to establish rapport fairly well. So, we can say there is a minimal or marginal improvement in the symptoms of depression, but it is only to the tune of 20-30 per cent,’ a senior doctor said.  Some of his doctors also claimed that his understanding and meaning of the rejection of his mercy petition is at best ‘shadowy’ and since 2011 he has been disinterested about his fate. At most times he is confined to his hospital bed and occasionally wakes up screaming at night saying he had dreamt of being hanged.

By all accounts, it would seem that Bhullar is indeed suffering from mental illness and is in what the law calls Non compos mentis – Latin for not of sound mind.  Human rights activists claim that regardless of the nature of the crime committed it would be unlawful to execute someone who isn’t mentally fit to defend themselves. This judgement could actually set off a vicious circle because under law he won’t be executed till he’s mentally competent and Dr Desai believes that full recovery is out of the question now, ‘We cannot hope he will fully recover now because there is no hope for him with the sentence.’

Who is Devinderpal Singh Bhullar?

Bhullar was a Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist who triggered a bomb blast at youth Congress office in Delhi in September 1993 which killed nine people and injured 25 others. The main target, Maninderjit Singh Bitta – an outspoken opponent of the Khalistan movement was injured in the attack. The Khalistan movement is a secessionist movement that wanted a separate nation called Khalistan for the Punjabi speaking populace. 

‘Bhullar is undergoing treatment by a panel of five to six doctors,’ Rajesh Kumar, one of the doctors treating Bhullar at the IHBAS, said. ‘It is not easy to say how much time is required for him to be mentally fit. We usually share his clinical condition with the court every fortnight,’ he said.

Tihar Central Jail spokesman Sunil Gupta told IANS: ‘As per Indian law, a convict cannot be hanged till he is declared mentally and physically fit.’ ‘When we get Bhullar’s fitness certificate from the asylum, he will be lodged back in Tihar Jail and hanged as per procedure,’ he said.

Bhullar was given capital punishment for the 1993 blast at the Youth Congress office in Delhi, which left nine dead. The attack targeted then Youth Congress leader M.S. Bitta, an outspoken critic of the Khalistan movement. Bhullar had filed a mercy petition Jan 14, 2003, which was rejected by the president May 25, 2011. He approached the Supreme Court in 2011, which Friday again rejected his plea.

Source: IANS

 The Supreme Court  on Friday rejected the mercy plea of Khalistani terrorist Bhullar, convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for carrying out a bomb blast outside the Indian Youth Congress office in Delhi in 1993, leaving nine people dead.  Bhullar had sought commutation of his death penalty to life sentence on the ground that there was inordinate delay by the president in deciding on his mercy plea. He had approached the Supreme Court in 2011.

Source: IANS

The service will commence at 10 places in the state, using Skype, a popular video conferencing platform. The platform would also be used by the CRPF to treat its personnel suffering from psychiatric disorders like depression and stress.

The Director AIIMS, Nitin M Nagarker, said the aim of the service was to make expert advice available to people in the far-flung areas of the state. He also said that a panel of three doctors would be available twice a week over Skype. Patients and paramedics at various CRPF camps would be connected for a consultation. The Director assured the media, that the internet connection being used would be a high speed one, therefore eliminating any cause for worry over technical glitches. The Director also stated that the hospital would also make psychiatrist available as well, to help the CRPF personnel deal with conditions such as depression and suicidal tendencies. However the CRPF director general, Pranay Sahay, said the rate of suicides is not as high as it is made out to be. He said that there are 40 to 45 cases of suicide every year, which is not high by any standards.

This new initiative is a boon for people settled in remote villages, where proper medical treatment is a dream.  The service would initially be launched from Kondagaon, Jagadalpur and Narayanpur.

Kept in a cell shared by three others, also undertrials, Ram Singh used a bucket to reach the grill to hang himself. Inmates are given bedsheet, bucket and a mug to take bath. Officials refused to identify the three inmates who shared the cell with Ram Singh, the prime accused in the physiotherapist trainee gang-rape that shook the collective conscience of the country and made for shocking news across the world.

Ram Singh was also known to suffer from deformity in his left hand.‘Undertrial prisoner Ram Singh, son of Mange Ram, who was lodged in Jail number 3 since Dec 23, 2012 was found hanging at around 5:45 a.m.,’ Tihar authorities said in an official statement.  ‘The matter is being inquired into by the judicial officer. The exact cause of death would be known after receipt of inquiry officer report which also includes post-mortem examination report by forensic specialist.’

Read: Was Ram Singh capable of suicide?

‘An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain how Ram Singh committed suicide in the high security Tihar Jail,’ G. Sudhakar, Deputy Inspector General (Prisons), Tihar Jail, said. But his family alleged he was murdered and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry.

‘He was killed and later hanged in the jail. He told us several times that he was threatened in the jail. We lodged a complaint in this regard. It was not suicide. We demand a CBI inquiry,’ Mange Lal, Ram Singh’s father, told reporters outside Tihar jail. V.K. Anand, his lawyer, also alleged ‘foul play’ and demanded a full-fledged inquiry into the incident.

He also said that Ram Singh was not in a depressed state as is being highlighted by jail officials.  Tihar sources said Ram Singh was earlier under suicide watch, but the alert was later called off after it was assessed that he was behaving normally and was not showing any signs of depression or talking about ending his life.

Ram Singh was the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old woman was raped by six males, including him and his younger brother. The six males, including a minor, also thrashed the woman’s friend and later threw them out of the moving bus in the cold December night out of the street – bleeding and without clothes.

Read: Aren’t you ashamed to be Indian?

The young student died of massive internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later. Ram Singh, who had confessed to the crime, had been charged in 13 cases in connection with the Dec 16 incident, and had been facing day-to-day trial in a fast-track court. He was supposed to be taken to the court Monday too.

Sources said all the five men were kept under suicide watch since January after they stopped interacting with other jail inmates and even between themselves. The rape victim’s 20-year-old brother expressed shock over the incident.  

‘Ram Singh should have faced the gallows. He should have been hanged publicly. Ram Singh was aware that there was strong evidence against him and that he could get the death penalty,’ the victim’s brother told IANS.  Lawyers and experts are of the view that trial would not be affected by the suicide. The others accused in the case, Pawan, 19, and Akshay, 29, are held in Jail No. 4, Vinay, 20, and Mukesh, 26, are in Jail No. 7. The sixth accused is a juvenile, lodged separately and is being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. As questions were raised about the monitoring of undertrials in India’s largest jail, officials immediately ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Also read: 

• Rape rises on streets, fades from B-town
• Why we need to rethink our juvenile laws
• Is the sixth offender really juvenile?
• Will India finally wake up?

 Source: IANS

Another problem is the school environment, where marks are everything, failure is looked down upon and only your ability to memorize your text word-for-word is lauded.   But what about those children who can’t memorize but can learn? Isn’t that why we want our children to have an education, to be able to use it in the real world?

If you are a student appearing for an exam, remember that there are other professions apart from medicine or engineering. If your passion lies in being a doctor, or an engineer, it is the best thing for you to do, but just going after it because your entire class is, is a bad idea! Putting undue pressure on yourself is only going to result in unwanted stress. Here are a few symptoms of stress you should look out for:

Symptoms of stress:

• If experience difficulty in falling asleep or don’t want to wake up.
• If you are constantly tired.
• If you find you are losing interest in activities that you enjoyed earlier.
• If you experience unexplained aches and pains.
• You don’t feel hungry or feel nauseous.
• If you are more irritable or anxious than normal.
• If you have a constant or repeatedly occurring headaches.
• If you experience your heart beating faster, also known as palpitations.

These are the general symptoms, but your general state of mind also plays an important role in determining if you actually are stressed or not. Just before your exams, you can do the following things to keep your stress levels in check;

• If you feel stressed out, take a break. Chat with your friends or just go for a walk This will help you clear your head and get things into perspective.
• Do not compare or talk about how much of your portion you have finished or anything related to your studies. Everybody has a different pace of studying, embrace yours. Make achievable targets and work towards achieving it. Making a check list always helps in encouraging you to achieve your target.
• Always eat nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables. Your brain cannot function to its best if all you are giving it is junk food. Think of yourself as a machine, it will not work well if you don’t give it the right fuel.
• Get 8 hours of sleep. It’s a common practice to pull all-nighters before an exams, but this habit can severely hamper your performance. Apart from the risk that you might fall asleep during the exam, there is also the real possibility that you might blank out on less sleep.
• Do not panic. It will only lead to you forgetting what you already know. Read your paper calmly and start by answering questions you already know the answers to. Then attempt the difficult questions.

If you are done with your exams, here is how you can handle result related anxiety:

 Exams or the results are not the end of the world: Studying for an exam is mandatory to learn and do well, but do not stress out because of it. Address the fears you might have, do you think you might fail? Or do you think you will do well, but not as good as your parents or peers expected? Remember that the marks you get on one paper are not going to decide your entire life. There are a number of eminent people in the world who were so severely disabled when it came to studies that they could not even clear a single paper. Your marks will only show you where you need to improve. Remember there is always a next time.

Suicide is not the answer: If you feel the pressure mounting, take a short break and just relax. You could try deep breathing or just going out for a walk. Talk to someone you trust about how you are feeling and why you are feeling so. Taking your life, because you are afraid of the consequences is the worst thing you can do to yourself and family.

Talk to your parents: Your parents are just worried about you. If you feel your parents are putting too much pressure on you, talk to a teacher or a counsellor. Tell them and ask for help getting rid of the stress. If you have no such recourse, talk to your parents and tell them how you are feeling.

If you are a parent, it is important that you understand your child’s point of view and state of mind. It will help your child a great deal if you help him/her understand you are there at all times. Making them feel like they have someone who will understand their state of mind, will help them relax and accept the results without fear. Do not stigmatise a child who is unable to perform, or feel ashamed of him/her, instead hone their talents. Children are smarter than you think, they are very good in picking up on your moods without you speaking a word, so keep in mind that you have to be whole heartedly supportive.

Also Read: 

Exam diet: Foods to boost your brain power

Top 10 ways to survive the exams

Read: Was Ram Singh capable of suicide?

“As far as the trials are concerned, his name will have to be struck down from the trial since he is dead, but even then, the trial would proceed,” Memon told a TV news channel. Another senior lawyer, Mukul Rohtagi, said it showed the “pathetic state of affairs” in the jail. “It could not have been done without outside support. There is a deep rooted conspiracy, people cannot hang themselves with their pyjamas,” Rohtagi said. “One of the accused is dead, the trial will go on. But more important than the trial today is to find out who is responsible for such a lapse,” he said.

Read: Aren’t you ashamed to be Indian?

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said it was a lapse on the part of jail authorities. “Prisoners of this kind are very vulnerable. Was his behaviour being reported? Was it anticipated? And if it was, what did we do with that? Those are the areas we need to judge,” Kiran Bedi said. Activist Kavita Krishnan said the suicide was condemnable. “The fact that the main accused is not there is something which is going to affect the case. It is condemnable, and needs to be inquired into,” she said.

The main accused in the Dec 16 gang-rape of a 23-year-old committed suicide in Delhi’s Tihar Jail Monday morning, police said. The 33-year-old Ram Singh, prime accused in the case, committed suicide around 5.00 a.m. in ward no. 5 of Jail No.3 in Tihar jail.

Singh had been charged in 13 cases in connection with the Dec 16 incident, and had been facing day-to-day trial in a fast-track court.  He was supposed to be taken to court Monday too.

Also read: 

• Rape rises on streets, fades from B-town
• Why we need to rethink our juvenile laws
• Is the sixth offender really juvenile?
• Will India finally wake up?

The 20-year-old brother of the victim told IANS over phone that he was shocked on learning of the suicide in the high-security jail.  “Ram Singh should have faced the gallows. He should have been hanged publicly,” the victim’s brother said.  The brother, however, did not blame Tihar authorities: “If someone wants to commit suicide, he will do it anyway. We cannot blame anyone,” he said.

The victim’s brother said: “Ram Singh was aware that there was strong evidence against him and that he could get the death penalty. The case is going on on a daily basis, and by April we will know the verdict,” he said. “I think he would have felt guilty about the incident because he did a wrong thing by hurting an innocent person in such a brutal manner. I want the trial to be completed at the earliest. All other accused in the case should get death sentence,” he added.

Ram Singh, 33, main accused in the horrific gang-rape case which caused massive social outrage, committed suicide by hanging himself in ward no. 5 of jail no. 3 in Tihar Jail Monday around 5 a.m. 

Also read:

• Was Ram Singh capable of suicide?
• Aren’t you ashamed to be Indian?
• Rape rises on streets, fades from B-town
• Why we need to rethink our juvenile laws
• Is the sixth offender really juvenile?
• Will India finally wake up?

Source: IANS