Legislation to Avoid Custodial deaths

The number of custodial deaths reported to the National Human Rights Commission during the last three years are as follows:

Year Custodial deaths

2007-2008 2267

2008-2009 1943

2009-2010 1794

The State-wise details are as under :-

Sl. No. NAME OF STATE & UTs YEAR
2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
1. ANDAMAN & NICOBAR 0 1 0
2. ANDHRA PRADESH 143 149 116
3. ARUNACHAL PRADESH 1 3 1
4. ASSAM 31 38 21
5. BIHAR 231 142 142
6. CHANDIGARH 2 5 3
7. CHHATISGARH 48 42 44
8. DADAR & NAGAR HAVELI 1 1 0
9. DELHI 63 44 43
10. GOA 0 2 1
11. GUJARAT 71 97 68
12. HARYANA 69 60 45
13. HIMACHAL PRADESH 4 7 6
14. JAMMU & KASHMIR 8 1 4
15. JHARKHAND 81 63 80
16. KARNATAKA 82 77 35
17. KERALA 62 45 50
18. MADHYA PRADESH 108 93 96
19. MAHARASHTRA 384 270 223
20. MEGHALAYA 3 4 3
21. NAGALAND 2 3 2
22. ORISSA 57 58 48
23. PONDICHERRY 2 2 2
24. PUNJAB 112 78 112
25. RAJASTHAN 59 64 84
26. SIKKIM 2 0 2
27. TAMIL NADU 111 80 77
28. TRIPURA 5 8 2
29. UTTAR PRADESH 356 330 364
30. UTTARAKHAND 20 14 16
31. WEST BENGAL 149 162 104

TOTAL 2267 1943 1794



A Bill titled “The Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010” has been introduced in Lok Sabha on 26/4/2010. The Bill, inter alia, provides for punishment to those involved in the incident of torture and specifies the time limit for taking cognizance of the offence of torture. The bill would act as a deterrent for Public Servants from indulging in custodial deaths and abuse of power by police authorities. This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Ajay Maken in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.