Nagbhushan Patnaik spent his early years in Padmapur, Rayagada, where he completed his primary education.

His father attempted to discipline him, prompting Nagbhushan to flee and seek refuge in a temple.

Cornered, Nagbhushan picked up a brick fragment, threatening to retaliate if his father caught him.

In the beginning of the 60th decade, he made several efforts to unite the local Adivasis of Malkangiri and the workers of the Balimela area and geared up the movement in his ways.

In January 1969, he along with DBM Patnaik tried to mobilize the peasants in the villages in Gunupur area to fight for their right, but Odisha police found the information and swooped down upon Naxal hideouts.

On 8 October 1969, he managed to escape from Vishakhapatnam Central jail with 10 others only to taste freedom for a short period.

He was sentenced to death by the Sessions Court of Vishakhapatnam in the Parvatipuram conspiracy case (in which Nagbhushan Patnaik was one of the principal accused persons) in December 1970.

After the emergency ended, the civil liberties groups, all his admirers as well as intellectuals and political veterans like Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab, Jayaprakash Narayan , and Sarvodays leader Malati Choudhury raised their voices and called for the release of Nagbhushan Patnaik.

[7] He never moved a mercy petition, rather wrote a letter to the jail superintendent asking him to comply with the orders and also to donate his body parts to the needy.

Patnaik was instrumental in the historic judgment passed by the Supreme Court, declaring section 309 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional.

On 9 October 1998, Patnaik died in a private hospital at Chennai due to renal failure.