4,484 custodial deaths in past two years, UP tops chart: Centre

A total of 4,484 deaths in police custody and 233 in alleged police encounters were reported in the country in the last two years, the home ministry informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Providing statewise data for custodial deaths, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum cases, followed by West Bengal, in both years.

While Uttar Pradesh reported a total of 952 cases (451 in 2020 and 501 in 2021) in the past two years, Bengal registered 442 (185 in 2020 and 257 in 2021) during this period.

With 396 cases, Bihar reported the third highest custodial deaths in two years (159 in 2020 and 237 in 2021), Rai said in a written response to questions by Indian Union Muslim League MP Abdussamad Samadani.

Overall, 1,940 cases of custodial deaths were registered in 2020 and 2,544 in 2021, he added.

In the south, Tamil Nadu reported a sharp jump in one year. While the state reported 63 cases in 2020, the figure rose to 109 the following year, according to data shared by the minister.

The northeastern reported lesser custodial deaths in the past two years. Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura reported less than 10 cases during this period. Goa and Karnataka in the south did not report more than 10 cases in the two years.

The Union territories of Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli reported zero cases.

On deaths due to police encounters, the minister said a total of 82 cases were reported in 2020 and 151 cases were registered in 2021.

With 54 cases in the last two years, Chhattisgarh topped the chart in this regard, the minister said.

Jammu and Kashmir ranked second (five in 2020 and 50 in 2021) followed by Uttar Pradesh (16 in 2020 and 11 in 2021), he added.

The minister attributed all the above figures to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

“Police and public order are state subjects as per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. It is primarily the responsibility of the state government concerned to ensure protection of human rights of the citizens,” Rai said.

“However, the Central Government issues advisories from time to time and has also enacted the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHR), 1993, which stipulates establishment of the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions to look into the alleged human rights violations by public servants,” he added.

Reacting to the government’s figures on custodial deaths in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) national secretary and state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “This is what our national president Akhilesh Yadav has been saying for the past five years… in custodial deaths, the state is number one. We have been saying that its total jungle raj under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government here. Innocent people are being murdered in police custody.”