Ranjan Kumar Das
Human Rights Defender
Odisha

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on February 4, 2020 regarding the brutal murder of Mr. Ranjan Kumar Das in Beruan village under Marshaghai block in Kendrapara district of Odisha. Mr. Das was a Right to Information (RTI) activist, and convenor of the Kendrapara district unit of Odisha Jana Suchana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA), a state level platform of HRDs.

On the morning of February 1, 2020, Mr. Das’s body was discovered in mysterious circumstances on the roadside near Beruan village, close to 2 km from his home. 

There were multiple injurie marks on his head and face. 
Mr. Das had received numerous death threats for seeking information on the functioning of illegal brick kilns as part of his work as an RTI acitivist, and had filed a complaint in the Patamundai police station and informed the district police about the same. Police however did not take any action on these complaints. A month before his murder, Mr. Das’s parents also received death threats.