PANAJI
Goa has not recorded any deaths in police custody in the last five years. However, five convicts and five undertrials died at Colvale Central Jail between 2020 and 2025 due to different causes.
In a written reply to an unstarred question by MLA Venzy Veigas, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the earliest case was in December 2020, when convict Shailesh Mapari died while serving a life sentence for murder.
The most recent death was in May 2025, when Nigerian national Ozomena Chiogole, who was facing trial under the NDPS Act and had been in Colvale Jail since January 2022, died in judicial custody.
The reply stated that the death was reported to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, District Magistrate, Chief Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, and Goa Human Rights Commission, as per prison rules. A magisterial inquiry and inquest were conducted, and while the report was sent to the NHRC, the Goa Prisons Department reportedly does not know the findings.
Another case was the death of South Korean national Hongjae Yoo in June 2022, who was also booked under the NDPS Act.
The deceased included prisoners charged or convicted for serious crimes such as murder, rape, and offences under the POCSO Act and the Goa Children’s Act. Four of them were booked for murder.
Of the ten deaths, at least three happened in 2022 and two in 2024. The only woman among them was Ankamma Kottapati, convicted under the Negotiable Instruments Act, who died in May 2022. Inquiry reports in all these cases were sent to the NHRC.
