Custodial torture and violence

 Custodial torture and violence

Custodial violence is referred to as the violence, torture, rape or death of the person while he/she is in the police of judicial custody. This torture can be physical or mental. According to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a total of 1,067 people died in custody in the first five months of 2021. On average, 5 custodial deaths occur every day.

Annual Report on Torture 2020 released by the National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) reported that the highest number of custodial deaths were reported from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh with 11 custodial deaths each; followed by 10 in Madhya Pradesh; nine in West Bengal and so on.

India is the world’s largest democracy. The increased no. of custodial deaths raises a huge doubt on its police system. The police department, which is supposed to prevent crime and disorder is put to a big question here. Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International rightly said:

The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who ‘disappeared’. That’s what the candle is for.

Some of the most atrocious forms of torture include starvation, threats, humiliation, drugs, brutal beating, extraction of teeth, flogging, suffocation, insertion of metal nails under toenails, electric shocks, rape, molestation, amputations, urinating in the mouth, application of irritants like chili powder, table salts, etc. on delicate parts or on open wounds and so on. 

Article 21 

No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law.[iv] In Inderjeet v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2014), the Supreme Court held that punishment which has an element of torture is unconstitutional. More so, in Kharak Singh v. State of U.P. (1962), the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. It held that life is not just mere animal existence, every human has the right to live with dignity.

Later, in K. S. Puttaswamy vs. The Union of India, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

Laws made for safeguarding prisoners rights 

Article 20(1) which states that no person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of the law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence;

Article 20(2), which is Protection against Double Jeopardy;

Article 20(3) which states that no accused person will be compelled to be a witness against himself;

Article 22(1), which says that no person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed of the grounds for such arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult and to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice; Section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure guarantees a person arrested to be informed of grounds of arrest and of right to bail and so on.