Five deaths in police custody every day over 10 years, but few convictions

Torture in police custody is "routine" in India, experts say, and is mostly used to coerce suspects to give up information and build evidence during an investigation

At least 17,146 people were reported to have died in judicial and police custody--nearly five a day, on average--in cases registered in the decade to March 2020, according to the latest data from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). This year alone, in the seven months to July 2020, the NHRC reported 914 deaths in custody, 53 of these in police custody.

On June 23, a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district died allegedly due to injuries caused by police brutality. The two had had an altercation when the police ordered them to shut their mobile accessories shop during