"No Such Trend Noticed": Centre On Reports Of Increasing Custodial Deaths

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha regarding reports of increasing custodial deaths, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said, "No such increasing trend has been noticed."

The Centre on Wednesday denied reports of an increase in custodial deaths in the country. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha regarding reports of increasing custodial deaths, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said, "No such increasing trend has been noticed." He quoted the "Prison Statistics India 2019 report published by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), and said, the report mentions 1775 deaths in Prisons for the year 2019. "The data is uploaded by the respective State/ Union Territories and NCRB has a limited role of collating and publishing this data," he said. The Minister noted that "Police", "Public Order" and "Prisons" are state subjects in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.