A shocking fact has come to light after Assam recorded the highest number of police custodial deaths among the north-eastern states as per the figures of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
According to the report, a cumulative of seven deaths in police custody have been recorded in Assam out of the total 151 cases reported in the country up to November 15, 2021.
Other north-eastern states include Meghalaya which reported 3 cases of death in police custody during the year while one case each was reported from Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are the only two north-eastern states without a single case of death in police custody.
The report read, “Among all states, Maharashtra reported the highest numbers of death in police custody with 26 cases, followed by Gujarat with 21 cases, Bihar with 18 cases, and UP and Madhya Pradesh with 11 cases each. Assam stands seventh overall with 7 cases. As per statistics, 136 police custodial deaths and 1,797 judicial custodial deaths were reported in the country in 2018-19. In 2019-20, there were 112 cases of police custodial deaths and 1,584 cases of judicial custodial deaths. During 2020-21, there were 100 cases of deaths in police custody and 1,840 cases of deaths in judicial custody”.
It may be mentioned that, in the year 2018-19, Assam had 5 cases of police custodial deaths and 30 cases of judicial custodial deaths. For the year 2019-20, the figure was 2 and 32 respectively, while in 2020-21, there were 1 case of police custodial death and 18 cases of judicial custodial deaths.
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