M.P. Nathanael | Custodial Deaths: A Growing Problem For Law-enforcing Agencies In India
R. Akash Delison, a Dalit youth, was arrested on March 5 for attempted murder by the Manamadurai police station in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga. After being brutally tortured in custody, he was shifted to Madurai’s Government Hospital, where he died on March 8. In his statement to a judicial magistrate, he said he was brutally tortured by placing stones below his knee and ankle and hit on the legs with iron rods. The autopsy report showed 24 injuries. When his parents refused to accept the body until the policemen responsible were arrested, the state cremated his body on June 17. The CB-CID is investigating and six policemen were suspended
Constable Jaswinder Singh of the Border Security Force, posted with a battalion in Tripura, came on home leave to his village in Jammu on February 5 this year. A day before he was to leave, he accompanied his mother Gurmeet Kaur to purchase medicines for her on March 3. On the way back, they were accosted by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials in Miran Sahib town, who beat up Jaswinder brutally for alleged links with Pakistani drug smugglers, shoved him into their vehicle and drove off. When Gurmeet Kaur tried to stop them, she was beaten by a woman NCB sub-inspector. After 17 days in NCB custody, Jaswinder was declared dead by doctors at Amritsar’s Pulse Hospital. The autopsy report of Civil Hospital, Amritsar, showed his body bore 34 wounds, nine of them inflicted within 24 hours before his death.
After an internal NCB probe, assistant director Amit Kumar and investigating officer Akash Rai, a sub-inspector, were suspended. The Punjab and Haryana high court directed the NCB office where he was detained and the hospitals to preserve the CCTV footage.
R. Akash Delison, a Dalit youth, was arrested on March 5 for attempted murder by the Manamadurai police station in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga. After being brutally tortured in custody, he was shifted to Madurai’s Government Hospital, where he died on March 8. In his statement to a judicial magistrate, he said he was brutally tortured by placing stones below his knee and ankle and hit on the legs with iron rods. The autopsy report showed 24 injuries. When his parents refused to accept the body until the policemen responsible were arrested, the state cremated his body on June 17. The CB-CID is investigating and six policemen were suspended.
The mother of a youth, Gade Sai Krishna, sought relief from the Andhra Pradesh high court with a habeas corpus petition for her son, who the circle inspector of Krishnalanka police station said had died. Sai Krishna was picked up on May 10 about 200 km from Vijayawada and handed over to Krishnalanka police station, where he was brutally tortured and where he died. His body was burnt. This custody death raised such a furore in the state that the government was forced to suspend Inspector S.S.V.V. Nagaraju and register a murder case against him.
Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told Parliament in March 2026 that 170 custody deaths were reported across India in 2025-26, with Bihar leading with 19 cases, Rajasthan with 18 and UP with 15. The National Human Rights Commission has said 348 persons died and 1,189 were brutally tortured in police custody between 2018-19 and 2020-21.
The impunity with which policemen resort to brutal torture is largely due to lack of accountability and punitive action against them. A NCRB report said though 1,107 custodial deaths were registered between 2011 and 2022, no police officer was convicted. The death sentence for nine police officials, including Inspector Sridhar, who headed the Sathankulam police station in Thoothkudi, by a Madurai district court in April 2026 is a rare instance. They were convicted for brutally torturing P. Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks on June 19, 2020, for alleged violation of Covid-19 restrictions.
While a check-and-balance system exists in the judicial process, these are not adhered to. Prior to their being produced before a judicial magistrate, a doctor gave a false fitness certificate. The magistrate saw them from a distance and sent them to judicial custody. Had the doctor or magistrate performed their duties seriously, their lives could have saved. Jail officials accepted them in bad physical shape instead of insisting on a medical re-examination.
But for the CBI taking up the case and a lone courageous witness, Head Constable Revathi, who recorded her statement despite intimidation, the conviction of the nine policemen would have faced hurdles. Unfortunately, no serious action was taken against the deputy superintendent of police and the district superintendent of police. When supervisory officers fail in their duties, lower ranks are bound to take the law into their own hands.
The policemen, with their long professional experience, are adept at destroying all evidence of their culpability. It speaks volumes of the efficiency, integrity and professionalism of the investigating officers of the CBI and state CID that despite the attempts by the culprits to destroy all evidence, they succeed in nailing the culprits based on copper-bottomed evidence produced in the courts.
Though the Supreme Court has repeatedly directed states that CCTVs be installed in all police stations, its implementation has been tardy, for obvious reasons. Wary of being exposed, police officers prefer to go slow on it. If installed, they would ensure these are disabled when they resort to brutality. Recently, the apex court took serious note of the lapses in installation of CCTVs in all police stations and directed the Union home secretary to appear before it. Except Kerala, all other states had defaulted in the implementation.
With 490 custodial deaths between 2016 and 2022, Tamil Nadu is reported to be leading among the southern states. Incidents of custodial deaths continue unabated across the country. Despite instructions galore issued by the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission to curb custodial deaths, these are ignored by police officials with impunity. The Karnataka police chief recently issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigating custodial violence and deaths, which if implemented will nail all such policemen who delight in torturing the victims. The responsibility devolves on senior police officers to ensure that custodial deaths or torture are curbed in their jurisdiction. They cannot be exculpated for deaths in custody while their subordinates are led to the gallows or to jails.
The writer is a retired CRPF IGP
