TL;DR The NCRB data on custodial deaths and police accountability, spanning 25 years, tells a consistent story: people keep dying in custody, and the officers responsible are rarely punished. Between 1999 and 2023, a total of 2,253 people died in police custody in India, averaging 90 deaths a year. In the same period, cases registered against police personnel for human rights violations totalled 2,373. Of those, only 3 cases ever ended in conviction, all in 2017. From 2018 to 2023, the conviction count was zero in six consecutive years.

Context

Police custody in India begins with a 24-hour window before a person must be produced before a magistrate. After that, a court decides whether to send them to judicial custody (prison) or back to police custody for further interrogation. Many custodial deaths occur in this early period or during police remand, when oversight is limited.

The law is clear. Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 mandates a magisterial inquiry into every custodial death, and the Supreme Court’s D.K. Basu guidelines lay down safeguards for arrest and detention. Yet the pattern remains unchanged: deaths are recorded, cases are registered, but few lead to chargesheets, and even fewer to convictions.

The deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix in 2020 stand out. In March 2026, nine police personnel were found guilty of murder, with sentencing set for 02 April 2026. Cases that reach this stage are rare. This article examines custodial deaths in India and what follows after they are recorded.

Who Compiles this Data?
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) collates the data on custodial crimes. The data does not capture why people died: illness, suicide, or assault are not disaggregated at the national level. What it captures is the fact of the death, and what followed in the legal system.

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data on Custodial Crimes in India?

Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to custodial crimes in India can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

About 90 people die in police custody each year

The NCRB classifies custodial deaths into two groups: those in police remand and those not in remand. The difference is procedural but important. Remand means custody is formally recorded and under court oversight. Outside remand, detention is less structured, before documentation or judicial scrutiny fully applies.

Custodial deaths occur every year, averaging about 90 annually. Over 25 years, 2,253 deaths have been recorded. The number has ranged from 128 in 2005 to 62 in 2023, without a sustained decline. The recent drop is modest. Annual deaths have fallen from about 95 in the 2000s to around 75 in 2020–2023. Whether this reflects fewer deaths or weaker reporting is unclear.

One shift worth observing is the rising share of deaths in police remand. In 2022, they accounted for 45% of all custodial deaths, the highest since 2008, before easing to 39% in 2023. These are cases where courts have explicitly handed custody to police, making such deaths harder to attribute to procedural gaps alone.

Number of Complaints with NHRC on deaths in judicial custody more than those in police custody

As per the guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), State authorities are required to inform the Commission within 24 hours of any death occurring in custody, whether in police or judicial custody. Further, anyone can file a complaint with NHRC regarding human rights violations.

The data from the NHRC show that complaints related to deaths in judicial custody consistently far exceed those in police custody. For example, in 2021–22, NHRC recorded 1,558 complaints linked to judicial custody deaths, compared to 176 for police custody. Similar gaps appear across earlier years as well. On average, 90% of the complaints received by NHRC on custodial deaths are from judicial custody.

In fact, the latest Parliamentary response says that across the five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26, cases registered in respect of death in Police custody at NHRC ranged between 140 and 176 per year, and only one case of disciplinary action was reported against a police officer in connection with a custodial death over that entire period.

These numbers suggest that custodial harm extends well beyond police lock-ups into prisons. And NHRC complaint data, while not a direct count, suggests that the scale of concern is far larger than what official death statistics alone reflect.

More than 2000 complaints registered on police personnel for human rights violation since 1999

In the 25 years since 1999, a total of 2,373 cases were registered against police personnel for human rights violations, a category that includes, but is not limited to, custodial deaths. This is where the accountability picture becomes stark.

The courts convicted police in exactly 3 of those cases (Data on cases convicted is available only from 2017). All three convictions happened in a single year, 2017, when 3 policemen were convicted out of 56 registered cases.

Even when cases are registered, the journey to a chargesheet is short for most. In 2023, 18 cases were registered, and only 3 were charge sheeted. In 2021, 26 registered, 2 charge sheeted. In 2019, 49 registered, but only 7 charge sheeted. The system routinely stops well before trial.

In 2022, 41 police officers were arrested in connection with human rights violation cases, the second highest since 2017 (Reporting started in 2017). Zero were convicted. In 2020, only 8 police officers were arrested despite 20 cases. The arrest-to-conviction pipeline is not just slow; across the recent period, it simply does not produce outcomes.

Further, cases registered against police fell from 253 in 2008 to 18 in 2023, a 93% drop. A decline in registered cases can reflect declining violations, or it can reflect a system that is not just recording them. Registering a case against a police officer requires a complaint, a willing police station to record it, and a state willing to allow it. All three conditions are more fragile than they appear. Victims’ families often face intimidation. Other police officers control the first information report process. State governments have both political and institutional incentives to keep the numbers low.

Why does it matter?

India is not without law on this subject. As per the Supreme Court’s DK Basu guidelines (1996), 11 mandatory requirements for arrests and detention remain in force. The Criminal Procedure Code mandates a magistrate’s inquiry into every custodial death. The NHRC is empowered to investigate and recommend compensation. In 2018, the Law Commission recommended that India ratify the Convention and pass a standalone anti-torture law. There are private member bills that still remain pending.

What does not change is that people continue to die in custody, year after year, across police stations and prisons. The numbers fluctuate, but never disappear. Whether counted through NCRB records or reflected in NHRC complaints, custodial deaths remain a persistent feature of the system.

Key Numbers

• Custodial deaths (NCRB)
  1999: 65, 2003: 94, 2007: 118, 2011: 104, 2015: 97, 2019: 83, 2023: 62

• Cases registered at NHRC (complaints)
  2010–11: 1572, 2013–14: 1717, 2016–17: 1761, 2019–20: 1696, 2022–23: 163

• Cases against police for human rights violations (NCRB)
  1999: 199, 2003: 85, 2008: 253, 2013: 178, 2017: 56, 2020: 20, 2023: 18