CDRO condemns 'custodial death' of Patnaik Harijan

New Delhi: The Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO) condemned on Sunday the death of Patnaik Harijan, a 45-year-old undertrial from Kalahandi District in Odisha's Niyamgiri area, who was brought to a government hospital in Burla by Bhawanipatna jail authorities, where he was under judicial custody for the last four months.

Following the news of what CDRO called the custodial death of Harijan, villagers started gathering in angry protest, after which CDO said that the government imposed

Section 144 in the area around the refinery plant when his body was brought to the village.

The CDRO said, in its statement, that Harijan's arrest and death have caused unimaginable distress to his family.

"CDRO demands a judicial probe into the custodial death of the undertrial prisoner caused by sheer medical negligence. While in prison, his family or friends were not informed of his illness or his being taken to the hospital. This makes the circumstances of his illness and subsequent death even more suspicious," the statement read.

The organisation said that Harijan was one among the 29 randomly arrested after violence erupted in protests against the death of a contract worker who succumbed to injuries inflicted by a vicious lathi charge by the Odisha Industrial Security Force in March 2019 at the gates of the refinery plant.