{"id":195886,"date":"2026-02-28T12:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=195886"},"modified":"2026-02-28T12:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:33:59","slug":"66-custodial-deaths-in-chhattisgarh-jails-over-13-months-spark-uproar-in-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/02\/28\/66-custodial-deaths-in-chhattisgarh-jails-over-13-months-spark-uproar-in-assembly.html","title":{"rendered":"66 custodial deaths in Chhattisgarh jails over 13 months spark uproar in Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Raipur: India\u2019s prison system continues to face a crisis of overcrowding, poor healthcare, and neglect, with conditions in many jails putting inmates\u2019 lives at risk. In Chhattisgarh alone, 66 inmates have died in state jails between January 2025 and January 31, 2026, figures revealed by the BJP-led government sparked uproar in the legislative assembly.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, during question hour, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel raised concerns over custodial deaths in the past 13 months and questioned whether judicial inquiries in all cases were completed in line with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines.<\/p>\n

The discussion followed the recent death of Adivasi leader Jeevan Thakur, who died on December 4 after falling ill in judicial custody.<\/p>\n

In response, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma informed the House that 66 inmates had died in the state\u2019s central and district jails in 13 months till January 31, 2026. Of these, inquiries by judicial magistrates, mandatory in custodial deaths, have been completed in 18 deaths, and the process was under way in other cases, he said, as reported by Indian daily The Hindu.<\/p>\n

This caused an uproar with Baghel launching a sharp attack on the government over overcrowding, collapsing healthcare, and poor law and order management in prisons, stating that the prison system was buckling under pressure. He highlighted that Thakur, a diabetic, did not receive timely medication or proper medical care, and that complaints suggested the jail superintendent ignored doctors\u2019 advice. Baghel demanded that Thakur\u2019s death be probed by a legislative assembly committee.<\/p>\n

Sharma responded that the judicial inquiry process should be allowed to conclude first. Congress MLAs protested in the House, raising slogans and staging a walkout, questioning the government\u2019s accountability for deaths in custody and the overall state of Chhattisgarh\u2019s jails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raipur: India\u2019s prison system continues to face a crisis of overcrowding, poor healthcare, and neglect, with conditions in many jails putting inmates\u2019 lives at risk. In Chhattisgarh alone, 66 inmates have died in state jails between January 2025 and January 31, 2026, figures revealed by the BJP-led government sparked uproar in the legislative assembly. According …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/02\/castodial.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195888,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195886\/revisions\/195888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}