The death of an inmate at Howrah District Correctional Home has prompted allegations from his family that he was given a poisonous substance with food and was not provided timely medical treatment after falling ill. The district administration has assured the family that the allegations will be examined and that action will follow if any wrongdoing is found.
The deceased has been identified as Prosenjit Ghosh, a resident of Mir Para in Liluah. He had been arrested in connection with a shooting incident reported on 5 August at a liquor and gambling den in Liluah’s Burma Colony. A judge subsequently ordered that he be kept in jail custody.
According to the report, Ghosh’s mother, Sudha Devi, said she met her son in the correctional home on the Friday before his death. During that meeting, he reportedly told her that he was unwell and needed to be admitted to a hospital. The family then approached the correctional home authorities through their lawyer, seeking hospital admission for him.
The family alleges that the authorities did not respond to that request before Ghosh’s condition became serious. Sudha Devi said the family received a call from the jail on the following Saturday afternoon informing them that he was very ill and had been admitted to Howrah District Hospital. His condition subsequently deteriorated and he was moved to an intensive care unit, where he later died.
In comments reported by Sangbad Pratidin, Sudha Devi alleged that her son had been given something poisonous with his food and that he had not received timely treatment after becoming ill. She disputed the explanation that substance use had caused severe liver damage, saying that her son did not regularly consume excessive amounts of intoxicants. The allegations have not been independently established in the information available in the report.
The reported medical explanation was that Ghosh’s liver had deteriorated severely because of substance use. The report does not provide details of a post-mortem examination, toxicology findings, medical records or any formal inquiry report. It also does not identify the officials who gave the reported assurance or specify the timeline for the administrative review.
The case places the focus on two immediate institutional questions: how illness among inmates is identified and escalated, and how requests by families for hospital treatment are recorded and acted upon. Correctional facilities hold responsibility for people who cannot independently access outside medical care, making the documentation of symptoms, referrals and hospital admissions central to accountability when a death occurs.
The district administration has said it will examine the family’s allegations and take action if fault is found. Further findings from that review, along with medical and post-mortem records, will determine whether the allegations of poisoning or delayed treatment are substantiated.
