A report prepared by Asian Center for Human Rights lists at least 1184 people killed in police custody in India during an 8 year period  between April 2001 to Mar 2009 with police not following court guidelines.

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On the occasion of International Day in support of Victims of Torture 2009, Asian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) has the pleasure to share its report “Torture in India 2009”. The report focuses on deaths in police custody in the last eight years from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2009.

According to the reports/information submitted by the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police of every district of India to the NHRC, a total of 1,184 persons (the names of each and every victim and the NHRC Case number are provided in the report) were killed in police custody during this period. Most of the deaths took place within 48 hours after being taken into custody primarily as a result of torture.

These above figures, however, do not represent actual number of deaths in police custody. A number of complaints pertaining to the custodial death filed by ACHR with the NHRC were indeed not reported to the NHRC by the police.

Further, killings in the custody of the Central para-military forces and the Indian Army are not reported the NHRC as NHRC does not have jurisdiction.

The report, “Torture in India 2009”, also covers incidents of torture in India during 2008. The complete report is available here.

- Note by Suhas Chakma