The shadow hanging over the death of Sheikh Shadat inside Subhash Place Police Station has refused to disappear quietly. Despite an official inquest ruling his death a result of coronary artery disease, a Delhi court has now ordered an FIR and investigation—driven not by suspicion, but by plain sight: photographs and videos of Shadat’s body showing unmistakable injury marks.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vasundhra Chhaunkar cut through the haze of procedural conclusions, noting that the visuals—of bruises across Shadat’s upper and lower back—demanded more than bureaucratic closure. “Visible injuries can’t be ignored at the threshold,” the court remarked, signaling a rare judicial acknowledgment that institutional answers sometimes arrive too neat, too soon.
The push for accountability came from Setara Bibi, Shadat’s wife, who told the court her husband was tortured in custody after being picked up by police near Subhash Place on July 21, 2023, along with four others. According to her, what began as an arbitrary detention morphed into a brutal shake-down. Shadat, she alleged, was beaten and pressured to pay bribes. One day later, he was dead.
An FIR under the Arms Act had been filed against all five detainees. Shadat alone was held in police custody; the others were sent to judicial custody. Family members said he was injured and weak when he last appeared in court, where he told them of the alleged beatings.
On July 23, the next call the family received came not from their loved one, but from the Jahangirpuri Police Station—Shadat had been admitted to Ambedkar Hospital. When they arrived, it was to view his body in the mortuary. The video they recorded would later become a central piece of evidence: dark bruises, contusions, and silence.
Months passed. Setara Bibi approached the police for accountability. The response? A report from the Deputy Commissioner of Police saying the inquest was still “pending.” A follow-up from the Subhash Place Station House Officer didn’t even mention an FIR.
That’s when she turned to the courts.
Though the inquest cited natural causes, the judge pointed out that such findings were not definitive. The complainant, the court noted, wasn’t in a position to gather medical, forensic, or witness evidence on her own. Shutting down the investigation based solely on the inquest would be, in the court’s words, a disservice to justice.
The court has now ordered the Station House Officer to file an FIR and begin investigation. A compliance report is expected by June 28.
The case, now reborn under judicial glare, refuses to let a death pass unchallenged just because the paperwork said it was natural. The bruises still speak—and now, they will be heard.
