Custody death due to disease no ground for compensation: HC
Times of India | 10 September 2025
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday denied to grant compensation for a custodial death in 2023, stating that to be entitled to compensation, the beneficiary had to show that the person died an unnatural death during incarceration.
"Simply, any death occurring while the deceased was under incarceration in a correctional home in Bengal does not qualify for the award of compensation under the scheme of 2019," ruled the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi.
Excise officers picked up Gafur Molla on Aug 28, 2023, and detained him at Balarampur excise camp. It was claimed he was neither formally arrested nor produced before a magistrate.
Molla's son moved the Calcutta HC, seeking compensation for his father's custodial death. During his reported illegal detention, Molla was allegedly subjected to custodial torture resulting in his death on Sept 2, 2023. His son's contention was the autopsy report showed Molla was physically tortured in custody.
It was stated Molla, while at Baruipur correctional home, fell sick and was taken to a sub-divisional hospital on Sept 1, 2023.
During treatment, he died around 12.20 am on Sept 2.
But the division bench noted a trial against the erring officer was pending and the chemical report yet to be submitted, which even the autopsy surgeon said was needed to understand the cause of the death. The SIT filed a charge sheet under sections 167, 218, 330, and 34 of IPC against two accused and sections 167, 218, and 34 of IPC against three others. The medical board said, "It is evident none of the injuries, individually or collectively, is sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature in a healthy individual.
But the deceased had significant pre-existing cardiovascular diseases, including failure, atherosclerosis, and narrowing of coronary arteries. The trauma inflicted by these injuries could have potentially acted as a triggering factor, exacerbating the underlying heart condition and contributing to death. While a direct cause-effect relationship between the injuries and de facto outcome cannot be conclusively established, based solely on post-mortem findings, the possibility of trauma playing a role...
cannot be ruled out."
"To be entitled to compensation for custodial death in a correctional home in Bengal, the beneficiary has to demonstrate the deceased died an unnatural death... Such ‘death due to any other reason' mentioned in the schedule has to be considered in the context of the Scheme of 2019 and must be an unnatural death. A death due to the diseased condition of organs... while undergoing detention... cannot be stretched to be an unnatural death for the purpose of such a scheme," the division bench held.