JOIN USAn undertrial attacked two sleeping inmates in Nashik Central Jail early on Wednesday, smashing their heads with a wooden plank, leaving one of them dead and another battling for life.
The 26-year-old attacker, Sopan Pagare, has been charged with murder and attempt to commit murder.
Nashik police told local media that between 1 am and 2 am, Pagare crept towards 20-year-old Vishal Chaudhari and 22-year-old Vijay Ippar, who were deep in slumber in barrack 3, circle 6 of the jail, and hit them on the head with a wooden plank dislodged from the toilet door.
The cries of the two youths shook the entire barrack, and Pagare stopped clobbering them only after he was overpowered by other inmates and prison guards.
The two inmates, bleeding heavily, were rushed to the prison hospital, where Chaudhari succumbed early morning, while Ippar was reported to be in a critical condition.
Prison officials said Pagare was enraged following a petty quarrel with the two, who had heckled him.
An enquiry has been instituted to look into the attack inside a jail considered as one of the highest-security prisons of Maharashtra.
While Nashik Jail officials lamented to the local media that the prison was understaffed, with barely 245 personnel guarding 2,300 prisoners, Maharashtra jails and prisons are fast acquiring notoriety for internecine clashes and prison-breaks.