UP tops in cases of custodial rape

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the high occurrences of custodial rapes in Uttar Pradesh, from where over 90% of such cases in the country have been reported over the past few years.

The panel looked at data from 2015 in its report on ‘Women in Detention & Access to Justice’ in which 95 cases of custodial rape were reported from UP, followed by two from Uttarakhand and one each from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. However, the number of cases declined dramatically in 2016 (the latest period for which NCRB data is available), with 11 of the total 26 custodial rapes reported from UP.

The state also reported the highest incidents of deaths of women inmates in prison for three consecutive years. While 340 deaths were reported in 2013, the number came down to nine and 10 respectively in 2014 and 2015 (the latest period for which prison statistics are available with NCRB).

The parliamentary panel on empowerment of women, which submitted its report in Lok Sabha on Friday, expressed concern over the high occurrence of custodial rapes. “The committees are of the view that police brutality during custody is one of the several forms of police misconduct, which assumes grave proportions when it is perpetrated against the weaker and vulnerable sections of the society,” it said.

PK Mishra, IG (prisons), UP, said the rapes did not happen inside the jail.“It could have occurred in other places … police stations or maybe nari niketans (correction homes for women).”

The state also reported the maximum cases of rape in 2016. Of the 38,947 cases, 4,816 were reported from UP.

The panel recommended installing CCTV cameras for “better surveillance and supervision” to ensure effective prison management and inspection of police stations by superior officers. It also flagged the issues of overcrowding and shortage of medical staff to attend to women inmates in jails.