Sameer Thakur, 21, silent hasn’t honest about phrases with the events leading up to the death of his father Jeevan Thakur on December 4, 2025. Jeevan, 49, a former janpad chairperson of Charama panchayat, died in a government clinic in Raipur, real two days after he became shifted to the Central Jail in the Enlighten Capital from a penal complex in Kanker, almost about 150 kilometres away. Jeevan had been lodged as an undertrial, accused of forging documents for a forest lease. In three weeks, he would possess turned 50.
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His death — one in every of the 66 custodial deaths in Chhattisgarh’s prisons between January 2025 and January 2026 — had since precipitated avenue protests across the Bastar house, the place apart Kanker is found. The protesters acknowledged that the tribal leader, who became an region of enterprise bearer of the Sarva Adivasi Samaj, an umbrella organisation for tribal communities in the Enlighten, had been tortured.
The matter became hotly debated in Chhattisgarh’s Legislative Assembly all the plot thru the Worth range session, with the government giving out the figures for the deaths.
Sameer has confronted many blows all the plot thru the last 5 months. He alleges that the Kanker penal complex authorities denied his heavily diabetic father lawful clinic treatment since his arrest on October 12 final 12 months. His older brother Neeraj Thakur as smartly as their maternal uncle Sopsingh Thakur, had been arrested in the same case. Neeraj, too, died in January after his health deteriorated whereas out on bail.
“On December 1, my uncle (Sopsingh) suggested us that my father’s health had deteriorated to the extent that he became unable even to shuffle to the meeting barrack. We requested the penal complex authorities to kind out the case on an pressing basis, nevertheless possess been suggested that he became doing alright,” says Sameer.
He adds that on December 3, they learnt that Jeevan had been moved to Raipur for better medication. The following day Sameer went to the Kanker penal complex to place apart a seek data from to about his father’s whereabouts. “There I became suggested by the penal complex workers that my father had been moved to a government clinic in Raipur. I confronted them about why we weren’t suggested about it officially earlier,” he says, adding that his brother, who became in the same penal complex, became also no longer told regarding the shift. “We established contact with Raipur’s Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Health heart with the support of the Kanker MLA. Simplest then did we learn that he had died that morning. For hours after his death, there became no longer even an strive to say,” he says.
Neeraj later suggested the media that his father’s death and the medication he himself had got in penal complex had brought about him enormous stress. Within the penal complex transfer uncover, a copy of which the family allegedly got exclusively after Jeevan’s death, “the hospitalization doesn’t obtain a mention”.
Samir Thakur at his location in Kanker. He says his father and brother possess been tortured in penal complex.
| Photograph Credit:
Special Intention
Assembly answers
On February 26, Query Hour in Chhattisgarh’s Assembly started with the seek data from of custodial deaths. Historical Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, from the Congress, asked how many custodial deaths had happened in the central and district jails of the Enlighten between January 2025 and January 31, 2026. He also asked if a judicial inquiry had been completed in all these circumstances as per the pointers of the Nationwide Human Rights Commission.
In response, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, who holds the house portfolio in Chhattisgarh’s BJP government, suggested the Assembly that 66 prisoners had died in custody in that period. He added that in accordance with the pointers of the Nationwide Human Rights Commission, judicial Justice of the Peace inquiry proceedings had been completed in 18 circumstances, with 48 circumstances pending.
Baghel pointed out that the respond had no longer integrated the names of the deceased, to which Sharma answered that he would make the checklist on hand. Baghel then brought up the direct case of Jeevan, claiming that he had been framed. Sharma acknowledged Jeevan had been transferred to Raipur Jail by court uncover because of the his “behaviour and diverse points”. He strongly refuted all allegations of Jeevan being framed and acknowledged that an investigation yarn on the case had been filed. “In accordance with that yarn, there’s total evidence against the accused of forging documents, forest rights certificates, and more. The case became filed based mostly completely on that evidence,” he suggested the Assembly.
Baghel spoke to the concerns voiced by the Thakur family earlier than and after his death: “Since he suffered from diabetes, he wasn’t getting timely medication. There possess been a enormous amount of complaints against the penal complex superintendent, who denied him derive admission to to medical medication, and refused to take him to the clinic whatever the doctor’s recommendation. His condition worsened.”
He went on to blueprint the Condo’s consideration to the true fact that the tribal neighborhood, to which Thakur belongs, complained about this, even staging a avenue blockade across Bastar, and disturbing an investigation by a Legislative Assembly Committee. “Did your division habits an investigation based mostly completely on the neighborhood’s demands? If an investigation became performed, what became chanced on? Who became chanced on responsible, and what lunge became taken? If no longer, why?” he acknowledged.
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Overfull jails
One other respond by the government on the same day revealed that as a minimum 33 of the prisoners who died all the plot thru this 12 months-prolonged period possess been these who possess been shifted from one penal complex to one more.
The knowledge provided in the Assembly reveals that in 19 of the 33 circumstances, including that of Jeevan, the post mortem yarn of the death or judicial Justice of the Peace inquiry yarn weren’t on hand. Of the closing 14, causes possess been diverse, from cardio-respiratory failure and chronic kidney disease to septicaemia. In these form of circumstances, the inmate became being shifted from a smaller town to a nearby bigger city comparable to Raipur or Bilaspur for better medication.
All thru the debate, the Deputy Chief Minister extra revealed the numbers of custodial deaths in prisons in the last few years possess been: 71 in 2021, a upward push to 90 in 2022, a tumble to 57 in 2023, and 67 deaths in 2024.
Recent Delhi-based mostly completely Suhas Kumar Chakma, the Director of the Rights & Risks Analysis Community think-tank, says that whereas the causes tiresome deaths in India’s jails fluctuate, it all boils down to overcrowding.
“It is subtle to generalise the deaths that happen in penal complex. There can also very smartly be many elements. It’ll also very smartly be outdated college age, denial of medical facilities, imperfect medication or torture, in particular on americans arrested in insurgency circumstances,” he says. Chakma’s organisation conducts possibility prognosis to cease violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Stage Prasad Chouhan, a social activist based mostly completely in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, claims that whatever the formation of release committees by the government, the jails in the Enlighten are overcrowded. “This indicates a total and insensitive attitude of a democratic and constitutional speak in direction of human rights in prisons,” he says.
In February 2024, the Deputy Chief Minister had acknowledged in the Assembly that over 18,000 inmates possess been lodged in Chhattisgarh’s jails against a sanctioned potential of 14,383: up to 126% of the present potential then.
Biases and labels
One other custodial death all the plot thru this era became of Sunil Mahanand, a 30-12 months-outdated college who allegedly died by suicide in the Raipur Central Jail on January 4, lower than two months after he became lodged there. He had been arrested in a molestation case registered beneath the Safety of Younger americans from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
His death became also followed by protests by his family, who claimed that he became innocent and became being framed and mentally tortured whereas in penal complex. His brother, Kammo, says their mother has taken in downhearted health after Sunil’s demise and is in clinic.
Protesters at the time of Sunil’s death had also claimed that he became being centered by the authorities because he became from the Gada neighborhood, a backward caste. Chouhan requires a nearer examination of data to possess a look at how many americans on the checklist of these who died in penal complex custody are from historically marginalised communities. He says such deaths “ought to be viewed in a social, historic, and political context”. He provides the example of labelling marginalized communities as criminals.
shubhomoy.s@thehindu.co.in
