Saurabh Kumar (engineer)

Saurabh Kumar (1983–2015) was an engineering officer with Indian Railways, hailed as one of several whistleblowers¹ against corruption in India. He died under mysterious circumstances in Kharagpur after informing his family that he had received death threats for resisting pressure to approve tenders.²

A graduate of BIT Sindri (2008), Kumar was posted as the purchase officer in Railway stores, handling large-volume tenders for railway scrap. He confided to his friends and family that he was under pressure to approve tenders by "politically affiliated mafia members."³ On 23 September 2015, his body, already in a state of decomposition, was found at his official quarters in Kharagpur.⁴ Reports stated that the body had head injuries and profound bleeding.² Initially, the police refused to file a foul play FIR⁵ and declared it as a case of death by snakebite.⁶

However, friends formed the group #JusticeForSaurabh on social media.⁷ After mounting pressure on the internet, along with TV images showing most of the bedsheet soaked in blood,⁸ the railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, ordered a probe,⁹ and the police agreed to register an FIR for murder.¹⁰¹¹

The killing is under investigation¹² but the internet outcry continues, pointing to the police reluctance to register the murder as evidence that the investigation was sidetracked at the behest of the rail mafia.² In the days after the probe was announced, the group have tried to get political backing for a stricter probe,³ and a candlelight vigil was organized at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi by the political group, Swaraj Abhiyan, seeking early justice.¹³