National Human Rights Commission: On 25-06-2025, the National Human Rights Commission (‘NHRC’) took suo motu cognizance of a media report revealing the death of three prisoners in custody of the state in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
As per the media report, a male and a female prisoner lodged in the District Jail died due to illness, whereas another lodged in the Central Jail of Varanasi died due to heart attack one after the other on 15-06-2025 and 16-06-2025.
The NHRC observed that if the contents of the news report were true, it would raise serious issues of human rights violations. Therefore, it issued notices to the Director General, Prisons and the Commissioner of Police, Varanasi, seeking a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.
The report was expected to include the inquest and post-mortem examination reports, along with initial health screening reports of all three prisoners as well as the magisterial enquiry reports.
