Lockupdeath
RagaDecode investigates custodial deaths across India—unpacking police brutality, fake FIRs, judicial loopholes, protest uprisings, and silent cries for justice behind locked bars.
Custodial deaths in India reveal the darkest corners of law enforcement—where justice is expected but brutality reigns. RagaDecode shines a light on this murky and disturbing phenomenon, simplifying the facts, dissecting judicial actions, and giving voice to those silenced behind bars.
From local police stations in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to high-security lockups in Maharashtra and Assam, lockup deaths have become an unspoken epidemic. Often, these incidents are passed off as suicide, "health emergencies," or unexplained collapses. Rarely are CCTV footages released. Medical reports get altered. FIRs are sanitized. Families are silenced with threats or money. RagaDecode exposes this pattern, drawing attention to the alarming rate of custodial violence in a democratic nation.
We cover recent and historical cases—like the Sathankulam father-son horror, whose brutal death sparked rare action against police. We explain how judicial inquiries are often just eyewash, how human rights commissions lack teeth, and how Section 176(1A) of the CrPC is rarely followed in spirit.
Our reports decode the postmortem politics—what gets included, who’s allowed to witness, and how loopholes are used to protect the guilty. We also shed light on custodial violence against minorities, Dalits, and the economically weak, showcasing the caste and class angles that mainstream headlines avoid.
Importantly, we highlight grassroots resistance. From candlelight vigils to PILs filed by rights activists, civil society continues to fight back. Families turned activists are demanding CCTV installation, bodycams, zero FIR acceptance, and urgent prison reforms. RagaDecode tells these stories in simple, clear language that empowers the common reader to understand the complex machinery of legal redress.
We also follow how the media either amplifies or forgets such deaths based on region and privilege. Our coverage doesn’t just rely on press statements—we pull in survivor accounts, RTI data, leaked inquiry findings, and on-ground testimonies from lawyers and local journalists.
Through every update, we ensure empathy without dramatization, data without dilution, and truth without delay. Because justice denied in lockups threatens the very rule of law. And when silence becomes the system’s strongest ally, journalism must speak the loudest.
Let’s decode, demand, and document—till no one dies unheard behind bars.
