New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) In a report released Wednesday on the status of policing in the country, an NGO has flagged alleged “disregard” for the rule of law by some police personnel and “inadequate compliance” with arrest procedures.
According to the report — Status of Policing in India Report 2025: Police Torture and (Un)Accountability — by Common Cause NGO, a significant proportion of police personnel “justify the use of torture and violence” in the course of their duties.
They also believe they should be allowed to use force without any fear of punishment, the report claimed.
The NGO said the report is a result of its collaboration with the Lokniti Programme of The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).
It said 8,276 police personnel on various ranks — including DSPs and IPS officers — were surveyed at 82 diverse locations such as police stations, police lines, and courts across 17 states and Union Territories to arrive at the findings.
“The findings of this study indicate that a significant proportion of police personnel justify the use of torture and violence in the course of their duties, and also believe that they should be allowed to use force without any fear of punishment,” the NGO claimed.
Participating in a panel discussion after the release of the report, veteran IPS officer Prakash Singh said all is not well with the police but suggested things need to be seen in a perspective.
“Why are these excesses by the police? Why is there brutal use of forces by police? That needs to be understood,” he said. “When you are dealing with hardened criminals you can’t be saying that ‘please come’, ‘please sit’, ‘we met after a long time’, ‘have tea’, ‘how are you’, ‘aapko biryani khila dein’ (do we offer Biryani to you).” “You can’t be talking like that. Although, yes, this country has a tradition of feeding biryani to a terrorist. You have to be firm. You have to be tough. But where is the borderline and where do you cross it? That’s a different matter,” he said.
Singh, who was the chief of Uttar Pradesh and Assam police forces and also the Border Security Force (BSF), said force has to be used in certain situations and police are meant to use force to maintain law and order.
“India is a country where you have all kinds of problems. There is Naxal violence. There is Kashmir you have violence (sic), in the entire North East you have violence. You have violence everywhere… caste riots, communal riots. How do you deal with them except by using force?” he said.
“I am not justifying it (use of force)…I am saying use of force has to be understood in certain circumstances,” he added.
Senior advocate Vrinda Grover said the crime of torture exists and even the Supreme Court has recorded it. The state needs to be questioned on this, she said.
“Rather than going for police reforms what we need is accountability of the police for law and order, not towards political class,” Grover said.
Amar Jesani, public health expert and editor of Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, said torture causes mental health issues and also leads to death in custody.
The report said 20 per cent of the police personnel feel it is “very important” for the police to use tough methods to create fear amongst the public, and another 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 claimed.
Across various categories of crime, constabulary and IPS officers are the most likely to justify mob violence, and upper subordinate officers are the least likely to do so, the report claimed.
Twenty-two per cent police personnel believe that killing “dangerous criminals” is better than giving them a legal trial, the report alleged.
On alleged “poor compliance with arrest procedures”, the report said overall, 41 per cent police personnel said arrest procedures are “always” adhered to, while 24 per cent said they are “rarely or never” adhered to.
Only 62 per cent of respondents said the arrested person is “always” released on bail immediately at the police station in bailable offences, while 19 per cent said they are “sometimes” immediately released, the report claimed.
Anyone arrested for a bailable offence has a legal right to be released on bail and not kept in custody, it said.
Just a little over half the respondents (56%) said that it is “always” feasible/ practical for the police to produce a person before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest, the synopsis said.
The report claimed, “Thirty per cent of police personnel said that ‘third-degree methods’ are justified towards the accused in serious criminal cases. Nine per cent said they are justified in petty offences. IPS officers and those respondents who often conduct interrogations are the most likely to justify the use of third-degree methods.” Eleven per cent of the police personnel feel that hitting/slapping family members of the accused is absolutely justified, and 30 per cent said it is ‘sometimes justified’, the NGO alleged.
The report claimed discrepancies in the reporting of custodial deaths across various data sources.
“For instance, in the year 2020, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports 76 cases, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reports 90 cases, while the National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT), a civil society initiative, documents 111 cases of custodial deaths in the same year,” it said.
In 2022, as high as 55 per cent of the deaths in police custody reported by NCRB were of persons not on remand, i.e., those in police custody in the first 24 hours of arrest, the report alleged. PTI AKV ACB TIR TIR
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