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Mangaluru: “The last few phone calls from my husband were filled with nothing but despair and helplessness,” says Parveen Banu, her voice cracking as she recalls the final months of Sadiq Basha’s life inside Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Central Prison.

“He would call twice a week, each time begging me to find a way to get him proper treatment in just any hospital as long as it is outside the jail.”

Sadiq Basha, who died at just 48, was suffering from multiple serious illnesses – conditions his wife insists “were treatable with timely medical care”. But the jail authorities, according to Parveen, ignored his slow deterioration. “He was diagnosed with diabetes in 2021 and by 2024, his sugar levels had increased so much that it had begun impacting his other organs,” Parveen says. His heart function had shrunk to 30%, she adds.

Basha, and his family made multiple pleas to the prison authorities and courts but they were repeatedly ignored.

In 2024, Basha moved an interim bail application on medical grounds. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which was handling the case, opposed the plea, claiming Basha was receiving “adequate treatment” inside the jail. Prison authorities backed the agency’s stand. 

The prison department submitted a report saying Basha was getting “specialised medical treatment” at government-run hospitals like Victoria and Bowring. The medical officer, in his report, claimed Basha was “stable”. Both the NIA court and the Karnataka high court denied him bail.

On February 2 this year, Sadiq Basha died.

Sadiq Basha’s shackled feet, while he was undergoing ‘treatment’ in prison. Photo: By arrangement.

Parveen has since approached the court and the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, alleging medical negligence and denial of timely treatment. Prison records, however, are likely to categorise his death as a “natural death”, the same classification used for the overwhelming majority of deaths in Indian prisons.

That classification lies at the heart of a larger question. When prisoners die after allegedly being denied timely medical care, are those deaths truly natural? And who gets to decide this, the very people who are accused of not providing timely medical care?

Basha’s case is not an isolated one.

Last week, another pretrial detainee, Abdul Khadar, lodged in Bengaluru Central Prison, died after spending more than 18 years in custody. Arrested in connection with the Bengaluru serial blasts case, Khadar had developed multiple health complications during his prolonged incarceration. According to his lawyer, Gangadhar, Khadar had repeatedly sought interim medical bail, but his pleas were rejected each time. “Each time we moved a bail application for Khadar, the prison authorities would assure the courts that adequate treatment was available inside jail.” 

In courts’ records, Gangadhar says, the prisons are well-equipped to handle ailing persons. “Yet, within days of falling ill, people simply die,” he claims.

Officially, both Basha and Khadar’s deaths are likely to be recorded in the same category – as ‘natural........

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