In India, five people die in official custody every day. How does the law deal with these? – By Umang Poddar

The death of Altaf in a police station in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh has created a storm…. The opposition Samajwadi Party described the death as more evidence of rights violations by Uttar Pradesh’s “thoko [trigger-happy] police”. The Supreme Court has described custodial deaths as “one of the worst crimes in a civilised society governed by rule of law”.

Despite this, India sees a high number of custodial deaths. In 2019, approximately five people died in custody every day, according to a report by the National Campaign Against Torture. As per a 2020 report by the same organisation, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of deaths in police custody of all states….

Given the large number of custodial deaths in India, both the legislature and the judiciary have repeatedly framed mechanisms to deal with this….

This article originally appeared in Scroll.in.