A judicial commission of inquiry has confirmed that 24 individuals died in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area due to water contamination. The victims consumed water tainted by sewage that was supplied through pipelines managed by the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC).
The inquiry, which involved a single-member commission, identified a delayed tender process for the installation of a new Narmada-water pipeline as the primary factor contributing to this public health crisis. This situation unfolded between December 2025 and February 2026, leading to an epidemic that has raised serious concerns about water safety in the region.
HT could not independently verify the report’s contents, which the high court has barred from public release. Messages seeking comment from the IMC, the state urban development department, Dileep Yadav and Shivam Verma had not been answered at the time of going to press. The commission, headed by retired Madhya Pradesh High Court judge justice Sushil Kumar Gupta, submitted its 150-page report last week to the Indore bench of the high court. Local residents have continued to insist the toll is higher — 36, they say — but the court’s order at last week’s hearing directed that the report be shown only to advocates at the registrar’s office and barred its public release. The high court has been hearing the matter since the outbreak began on December 24, 2025.
“This led to the mixture of sewage and drinking water that was supplied to households in Bhagirathpura,” he said, declining to name the officers found guilty.
