Muslims, Dalits most common victims of police torture: NGO

People who belong to poor and marginalised communities – including Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and those who cannot read and write are the most common victims of torture by the Indian police forces, claimed an NGO report.

An NGO, Common Caus, has published ‘Status of Policing in India Report-2025’ on the basis of in-depth interviews with doctors, lawyers and judges, whose jobs involve interacting with the police and people in custody.

According to the report, 20 per cent of the police personnel feel that it is important for the police to use tough methods to create fear among the public, while 35 per cent think it’s somewhat important. “One in four police personnel strongly justify mob violence in cases of sexual harassment (27%) and child lifting/kidnapping (25%),” the report read.

It further claimed that the police personnel from Gujarat showed the highest support for mob violence, while those from Kerala showed the least support.

The report stated that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed ‘noticeable inconsistencies’ in its treatment of statistics on police torture or human rights violations. The ‘torture’ appears briefly in one of the tables, in which the state-wise information is mostly negligible, the report added.