In response to a question from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Varun Gandhi, the union home ministry told Parliament on Tuesday that 151 inmates have died in police custody this year. Gandhi advocated for a state-by-state division of incarcerated deaths. 

The ministry cited data from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and noted that Maharashtra had the highest number of such deaths, with 26. At least 13 states did not report any deaths in custody, according to the report. 

Suicides, illness, injuries sustained before and during police custody, and attempts to flee from custody were all listed as causes of death in custody in a recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report. 

According to the ministry, police and public order are state subjects, and as a result, the Centre does not intervene directly in matters of incarceration deaths.

“It is primarily the responsibility of the State Government concerned to appropriately prevent and ensure non-occurrence of police atrocities and protect the human rights of the citizens,” the ministry said.

In response to a separate question from BJP member Jagdambika Pal, the ministry stated that the number of cases of custodial violence has not increased. According to the report, the NHRC has received 19 reports of prison violence in the last three years. It went on to say that no one had died as a result of the violence. 

There is a discrepancy between the data provided in the two responses and the findings of the NCRB. In 2020, the NCRB reported 76 deaths in police custody, down from 85 in 2019.

“Information on deaths in police custody in India is officially reported by the NHRC and the NCRB. It is extremely unfortunate that even for something as grave and unambiguous as a police custody death, there has always been a mismatch in the data reported by both these institutions,” Raja Bagga, senior researcher, Police Reform Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, told Hindustan Times.