Judicial, police custody deaths highest in UP, says rights panel

new delhi — Uttar Pradesh has registered highest number of cases of custodial deaths in the country between October 2015 and September this year, with as many as 401 deaths taking place in judicial custody and 27 in policy custody, the National Human Rights Commission said on Friday.

“Uttar Pradesh, with 401 cases topped the list of cases of judicial custody deaths as well as in the list of cases of deaths in police custody with 27 cases,” NHRC Chairperson Justice H L Dattu was quoted as saying in a statement.

Earlier, addressing a press conference to mark the foundation day of the rights watchdog, he said since its inception in 1993, the National Human Rights Commission has come a long way by addressing several issues of human rights violations as well as giving inputs on key legislations impacting human rights. The NHRC had faced criticism from a section of civil society and NGOs for it report on the onspot inquiry of migration issue in Kairana in Uttar Pradesh which is going to polls next year.

Justice Dattu said, the Commission “has received the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on the Kairana issue, and the report would be placed before the full commission, which would discuss, deliberate and take the final decision in it.” “Over 100,000 complaints have been received in the commission which indicates not only the increasing faith of the people in its functioning but also their awareness about the importance of promotion and protection of human rights,” the statement said.

“During the period (October 2015 and September 2016), maximum 32,498 complaints were registered against police, out of which 206 cases were of encounter.

“Chhattisgarh with 66 encounter cases, topped the list followed by 43 in Assam, 15 in Jharkhand, 10 in Odisha, 7 each in Maharashtra and Meghalaya, 5 each in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur.

West Bengal with 11 cases, topped the list of registered cases of encounter by para-military forces,” it said.