Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Death reveals dark side of Indian detentions...

The death of the prime suspect in the Delhi-gang rape case in his jail cell has turned the spotlight on a disturbingly high number of deaths in Indian prisons.

Officials at the high-security Tihar Jail say Ram Singh, 33, committed suicide early on Monday while four other inmates in his cell slept. Singh allegedly used a blanket hanging from a metal rod on the ceiling 2.5 metres high to hang himself, officials say.
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Singh's death has highlighted the large number of inmates who die in India's justice system.

Statistics from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) show from 2001 to 2010, 14,231 died in police and prison custody in India - about four deaths per day.

According to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau, 1,332 prisoners died in India's jails in 2011 - 93.4 percent of which were "natural deaths". Sixty-eight inmates committed suicide and eight were killed by other prisoners. "Deaths due to firing", "Assault by outside elements", and "others" accounted for the 12 other "unnatural deaths".

But the Asian Centre for Human Rights said in a 2011 report that "a large majority" of custodial deaths "are a direct consequence of torture in custody". Full story...

Related posts:
  1. India’s secret executions: necropolitics and government by stealth...
  2. Delhi rape case: Main accused Ram Singh commits suicide in Tihar Jail...
  3. India: Jailed Maruti Suzuki workers subjected to torture...
  4. Former women prisoners in India's Tamil Nadu allege ‘sub-human' treatment...
  5. 17 Indian police and forest officials convicted of gang-raping 18 Dalit women...

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