33 custodial deaths in 8 years; no cop held guilty so far

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, August 29

A total of 33 persons have died in police custody in Haryana since January 2015.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij submitted the information in this regard before the State Legislative Assembly today, in reply to a question from Faridabad NIT MLA (Congress) Neeraj Sharma.

Three deaths took place in 2015, four in 2016, three in 2017, six in 2018, three in 2019, four in 2020, five in 2021, two in 2022 and three till July 31, 2023.

Out of the 33 deaths in police custody, six took place in Faridabad alone, followed by three in Panipat, two each in Karnal, Panipat, Sirsa, Palwal, and Dadri.

However, none of the police officials have been convicted in these cases. Either, the trials are pending in courts or cases have been declared “untraced” or accused police officials have not been found guilty in judicial inquiry or cases have been cancelled for being “untrue” or accused police officials are acquitted in courts or cases are under investigation.

The case of the custodial death of Madan, a resident of Chapaneri, Ajmer (Rajasthan), was registered under Section 302 and Section 34 of the IPC at the Sector 31 police station, Faridabad, on April 13, 2016. But it has been under investigation for the last seven years.

The case of the custodial death of Raj Kumar at the Bawani Khera police station (Bhiwani) was registered under Section 302/34, Prevention of Corruption Act and SC/ST Act on September 5, 2021, but has been under investigation for the past three years.

All custodial deaths of 2023 — Saikul Khan, a resident of Alwar (Rajasthan) at the Old Faridabad police station; Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Sirsa, at the Kalanwali police station (Sirsa); and Panchsheela De, a resident of Hooghly (West Bengal) at the Narnaul police station (Mahendragarh) — are under investigation. In all these cases, Section 302 of the IPC has been pressed.

A judicial inquiry is required to be conducted in case of police custody death under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as well as under the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).