LIFE ON THE LINE IN POLICE CUSTODY

As many as 100 people were reported to have died in police custody in 2017, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. Of these, 58 people were not on remand — they had been arrested and not yet produced before a court — while 42 were on police or judicial remand.

In 62 cases of custodial deaths, 33 policepersons were arrested, 27 were chargesheeted, four were acquitted or discharged, and none convicted. “One hundred custodial deaths in one year, in my view, point to serious cause for concern. It indicates that conditions in custody are not conducive to keeping people safe and alive,” said Devika Prasad, programme head, police reforms, at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. “Police must be made to answer for someone turning up dead while in their custody.”

“Every custodial death, every case of torture is to be condemned, analysed and investigated properly to come up with findings, which then have to be put in ameliorative action,” said Yashovardhan

Azad, former chief information commissioner and IPS official. “The basic directions of the Supreme Court (on police reforms) need to be followed, infrastructure needs to be ramped up, capacities should be built, and manpower investment is required.”

The health and safety of any person in custody is the responsibility of police, Prasad said, adding, “this is why the law mandates a judicial inquiry to be carried out when a person dies in custody. And also why the police are to report a custodial death to the National Human Rights Commission within 24 hours of occurrence, which in turn propels other accountability measures such as a videographed postmortem.”

Custodial deaths reported in India increased 9 per cent from 92 in 2016 to 100 in 2017, the NCRB data showed. Andhra Pradesh reported the most deaths (27), followed by Maharashtra (15) and Gujarat (10) in 2017. These three states accounted for more than half the custodial/lockup deaths reported.