CUSTODIAL DEATHS IN INDIA

Asian Centre for Human Right’s new report has revealed that more than a thousand people have died in police custody in India over the past eight years. The findings illustrate the government’s failure in ensuring compliance with Supreme Court guidelines about torture and extra-judicial killings.

New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its latest report Torture in India 2009 states that in the last eight years (from April 2001 to March 2009), an estimated 1,184 persons were killed in police custody in India. Most of the victims were killed as a result of torture within the first 48 hours after being taken into custody.
The highest number of custodial deaths was reported in Maharashtra (192 cases) followed by Uttar Pradesh (128); Gujarat (113); Andhra Pradesh (85); West Bengal (83); Tamil Nadu (76); Assam (74); Karnataka (55); Punjab (41); Madhya Pradesh (38); Bihar and Rajasthan (32 each); Haryana (31); Kerala (30); Jharkhand (29); Delhi (25); Orissa (24); Chhattisgarh (23); Uttarakhand and Meghalaya (16 each); Arunachal Pradesh (11); Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura (9 each); Puducherry and Chandigarh (3 each); Himachal Pradesh (2); while Manipur, Goa, Sikkim, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli recorded one case each.
“These deaths in custody do not however represent the actual number of deaths in police custody in India. A number of cases of custodial death taken up by ACHR with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) show that the latter was not informed by the police about these deaths. Its guidelines on reporting custodial deaths within 24 hours continue to be flouted,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR.
“Further, deaths in the custody of the armed forces and the Indian Army under the control of the Central government are not reported to the NHRC as it does not have jurisdiction to investigate violations committed by the armed forces under Section 19 of the Human Rights Protection Act, 1993.
ACHR itself has filed 50 complaints of extrajudicial killings from 2003 to 2009 from Manipur alone. Many of these alleged extrajudicial killings were indeed deaths in the custody of the Manipur Police Commandos but since the Manipur Police Commandos claim to be conducting operations jointly with the central armed forces, the deaths in the custody of the Manipur Police Commandos are not reported to the NHRC” he added.
The report stated that high number of deaths in custody exposes the abject failure of the 1996 D.K. Basu Judgment that provides the procedures to be followed while making arrests.
“Further, one of the key failures of the D.K. Basu guidelines is that its compliance is confined only to cases of arrests made under Sections 41 (when police may arrest without warrant) and 74 (Warrant directed to police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (as amended up to date). It does not apply to those who are summoned but not formally arrested,” said Chakma.