Tamil Nadu Custodial Death Fall Out: 5 Custodial Deaths in India Daily in 2019, says NCAT Report on Torture

By Debdutta Ghosh

The unveiling of the annual report of by the human rights group National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) called “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” coincided with the incident of the death of a father and son due to torture while in police custody in Sathankulam town near Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu which caused a national outrage against police brutality. 

P. Jeyaraj and J. Beniks, were picked up by the police n the evening of June 19 on a trivial charge. It has been alleged that Jeyaraj, 62, was working at his mobile shop at Sathankulam town when he was picked up by the police. It has been alleged that Jeyaraj had made some critical remarks about a police patrol team the day before for forcing shop owners to close their shops early because of lockdown rules. It has been reported that this comment was reported to the police by an auto driver and the police team had come the next day and took him in custody. Jeyaraj’s son J Bennix, 32, followed the police team to the station and he was also arrested along with his father on petty charges. It is alleged that the father and son were mercilessly beaten up the entire night inside the police lockup. They were taken to the local hospital after their condition worsened but were pronounced brought dead. All three accused policemen in the case have been arrested as of Friday.  

The NCAT report seemed to further reiterate the extent of police brutality in India even while many Indians were horrified with the video of the American black youth George Floyd. The report stated that there had been a total 1,606 incidents of deaths in judicial custody and 125 in police custody in 2019.

The total number of custodial deaths in India in 2019 therefore averaged at almost five deaths every day according to the report.

“Out of the 125 deaths in police custody, Uttar Pradesh topped with 14 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu and Punjab with 11 deaths each and Bihar with 10 deaths,” said the report published by the NCAT.

The report also highlighted a state-wise breakup of the deaths in police custody.

Name of State	No. of Death Cases
Uttar Pradesh	14
Tamil Nadu, Punjab	11 each
Bihar	10
Madhya Pradesh	09
Gujarat	08
Delhi, Odisha	07
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan	05 each
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana	04 each
Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal	03 each
Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Manipur	02 each
Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Tripura	01 each

According to the report, out of the total of 125 deaths in police custody, 74.4% or 94 of the custodial deaths happened because of alleged torture or foul play. 19.2% or 24 deaths had been reported to have happened under suspicious circumstances which, according to the police involved in the cases, were cases of suicide. Out of these 24 deaths under mysterious circumstances, the report noted that 6 deaths had occurred because of illness while one because of injuries. The report further said that no reason was attributed to the reasons of police custodial death of five others or about 4% of the total deaths and thus were recorded as unknown reasons. 

“Torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Gufran Alam and Taslim Ansari of Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Rizwan Asad Pandit of Jammu and Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Rajkumar of Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Rajkumar of Kerala), and hitting in private parts (Brijpal Maurya and Lina Narjinari of Haryana),” said NCAT director Paritosh Chakma.

The report also noted a number of other heinous methods of torture by the police such as by administering electric shock, pouring petrol or applying chilli powder on private parts, beating while handcuffed, pricking body with needles and branding with a hot iron rod. The report went on to detail some other forms of torture that the police in India engage in for people under their custody which included beating up arrested persons after stripping, urinating in their mouth, inserting a hard blunt object into anus, beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied, forcing to perform oral sex, pressing finger nails with pliers, beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with hands and legs tied, and kicking the abdomen of a pregnant woman.

The report also highlighted the known fact of the marginalized and the under privileged being subjected to policy brutality more than the others. 75 of the 125 deaths in police custody, or about 60%, were of people who belonged to the poor and marginalized communities of the country. The list included 13 people from Dalit and tribal communities and 15 from Muslim community.

Referring to the nature of crimes for which these 125 people were initially arrested, the report noted the 35 of the 125 people were taken into custody for petty crimes. Out of these, 3 were farmers, 2 were security guards, 2 were drivers, one was labourer, while the other two was a rag-picker and a refugee.

This report also noted deaths of at least 4 women ion police custody in 2019. 

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