Daily wager jailed for 13 months after taking sick woman to hospital

 

By Sagaya Fernando | July 29, 2025

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA: A daily-wage laborer in Bhopal spent over a year in jail for a crime he did not commit—simply because he took a sick woman to the hospital. Rajesh Vishwakarma, a resident of Adarsh Nagar slum, was arrested and imprisoned for 13 months after the woman died, despite a lack of evidence against him.

On June 16, 2024, Rajesh, who has no family support or legal awareness, took a neighbor in distress to a government hospital near DIG Bungalow. After helping her get admitted, he left for work. The woman died later that evening. The next morning, police arrested Rajesh, accusing him of murder.

“I only helped her because she asked me to,” Rajesh said. “The police picked me up that evening, interrogated me overnight, and arrested me the next day. I had no lawyer, no money, and no way to contact my family. I was in the police station for nine days before they sent me to jail.”

His troubles didn’t end there. The police locked up his rented room, leaving him homeless and in debt. “Now I have to pay 13 months' rent. No one will hire me because I came from jail. I’ve lost everything,” he said.

With no access to private legal aid, Rajesh was eventually assigned a court-appointed lawyer, Reena Verma, who took up his case free of charge. Her efforts exposed glaring lapses in the police investigation.

“There was no evidence against him,” said Verma. “The postmortem report claimed death by strangulation, yet hospital documents stated the woman died due to illness. No CCTV footage was collected. The identity of the woman wasn’t even confirmed properly. The entire investigation was negligent and careless.”

Rajesh’s sister Kamlesh, who was only informed of his arrest nine days later, said she had to pay bribes to retrieve his belongings from the police. “They demanded ₹500 to give me back his Aadhaar card and phone. We don’t have money. No one in our family is educated or knows the law,” she said.

After more than a year behind bars, Rajesh was acquitted. But the damage has been done.

According to the India Justice Report 2025 and Prison Statistics India 2022, over 75% of inmates in Indian jails are undertrials. In Madhya Pradesh alone, more than 6,100 undertrials have been in jail for over a year, many without timely trials or proper legal representation. The state’s jails are overcrowded at 164% capacity, and 24% of prisoners have been waiting for trial between one and three years.

Rajesh now faces the daunting task of rebuilding his life—without a home, job, or reputation. “Who will compensate me for 13 months of my life?” he asked. “The police never apologized. No one has been held accountable. I was only trying to help.”

While the court has declared him innocent, the scars remain. His story stands as a grim reminder of the consequences of a flawed system that continues to punish the poor for acts of compassion.