More than 14,000 people died in custody in India between 2001 and 2010, most of them from being tortured, a human rights body has said, heightening concern over police abuse. The New Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) said in a report released on Monday that 1,504 people died in police custody and 12,727 in judicial custody across the country over 10 years.
"A large majority of these deaths are a direct consequence of torture in custody," the ACHR said. "These deaths reflect only a fraction of the problem with torture and custodial deaths in India." The ACHR collated statistics from India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an independent body established by the government in 1993.
"Torture remains endemic, institutionalised and central to the administration of justice and counter-terrorism measures," the report said, urging the government to demonstrate the "political will" to end the abuse. The report also criticised the NHRC for registering only six deaths in police custody in the insurgency-hit Muslim-majority Kashmir region during the past decade. Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stated this year that more than 341 people had died in police custody since 1990, it noted.