HYDERABAD, May 27: Thirteen under-trial prisoners, needing extensive medical examination and investigation, could not avail the opportunity as they were brought late at the Civil Hospital Hyderabad (CHH) by the headquarters police here on Tuesday.

The prisoners, who were to be examined by ENT, orthopaedic, dental and urology specialists and surgeons, were sent back to the Special Prison, Nara, after they were checked by registrars of different medical wards.

They were brought to the hospital after several months of requests to the jail administration by them and subsequent calls by the prison authorities to the district police.

The prisoners were Ashar, Akhtar Ali, Sher Faraz, Ghulam Asghar, Mohammad Sharif, Jaro, Jummo, Ishtiaq Zaidi, Fayyaz Pathan, Gullan, Naseer Ahmed, Haji Fazal Mohammad and Ayaz Khatak

The OPD remains open till 1pm and the UPTs were brought there at 1pm when the consultants had already gone.

Doctors at the CCH accused the headquarters police escort of deliberately bringing the UTPs to hospital late so that they could not be admitted to the hospital.

The CHH doctors said that an entire day was required for examination and investigation of the ailing UTPs.

Referring to the case of a UTP, who was a cardiac patient, the doctors said that the jail hospital administration, instead of sending him to the CHH, kept insisting that the consultant should visit the prison.

A responsible CHH official told this correspondent that it had become a practice with the police to bring prisoners to hospital late.

The police officials often requested doctors not to recommend UTPs’ admission to the hospital because in that case they had to arrange police escort for their guard duty, he added.

He said that the administrations of the central and Nara prisons had repeatedly been requested to send the patients for their medical investigation and examination on time but to no avail.

One of the UTP, 70-year-old Jumo said: “I am a kidney as well as eye patient and have been requesting the jail administration to send me to the hospital for the last several months.”

Abbasi, who is facing trial in a theft case, needed dental surgery. He has been granted bail in a sum of Rs10,000 but could not be released on account of non-payment of surety amount.

Pathan and Zaidi were sent to hospital under the directives of the sessions judge and the special judge of anti-corruption, respectively.

Asghar, facing trial in a Hudood Ordinance case, said that he had been requesting the jail administration for the last one year to send him to hospital.

Superintendent, Nara jail, Nusrat Mangan, said that the police escort arrived at the jail at 12pm and they were handed the prisoners over at 12:30. He added that the arrival of the police escort became possible after three months of correspondent with the police.

Inspector Mansoor Memon, who brought the UTPs to the CHH, claimed that there was shortage of police vans and escort and they had to wait for the return of police escort, performing duties with VIPs and other assignments.