Every year the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes its annual Crime in India report which offers a comprehensive snapshot of crime trends across the country. The latest edition offers a compilation of crimes recorded in 2022 and sheds light on India’s complex law and order landscape.

For instance, when it comes to custodial crimes and complaints recorded against police personnel, NCRB 2022 shows that a mere 75 cases of custodial deaths were recorded across all 28 states and eight Union territories. Of these, only 32 were categorised as deaths attributed to illnesses and 31 were deaths by suicide. Only one instance was recorded as a result of injuries sustained during physical assault in police custody.

Every year the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes its annual Crime in India report which offers a comprehensive snapshot of crime trends across the country. The latest edition offers a compilation of crimes recorded in 2022 and sheds light on India’s complex law and order landscape.

For instance, when it comes to custodial crimes and complaints recorded against police personnel, NCRB 2022 shows that a mere 75 cases of custodial deaths were recorded across all 28 states and eight Union territories. Of these, only 32 were categorised as deaths attributed to illnesses and 31 were deaths by suicide. Only one instance was recorded as a result of injuries sustained during physical assault in police custody.

This data is largely in line with NCRB’s previous years’ reports, where the majority of custodial deaths are attributed to illness, suicide, or other natural causes. In 2021, out of the 88 instances of custodial deaths, 38 were attributed to illness and 31 to suicide. Similarly, in 2020 these numbers stood at 34 and 31 respectively out of a total of 76 custodial deaths and in 2019, they stood at 35 and 32 respectively out of a total of 83 custodial deaths.

In addition to this, the NCRB also records cases registered against police personnel for human rights violations. Overall, in 2022, 41 police personnel were arrested and 24 of them were chargesheeted in a total of 30 FIRs registered. Eleven of these cases were for encounter killings, nine for custodial deaths, one for torture, two for extortion and 12 were classified as ‘others’.

These numbers do not present the full picture of police misconduct across India, as we found in our recent assessment of the extent of compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive on setting up Police Complaint Authorities (PCA) across the country. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has been monitoring the states’ compliance since 2008 after the SC included setting up PCAs as one of seven directives on police reforms in its 2006 judgement (Prakash Singh vs Union of India) as a locally accessible remedy against police wrongdoings, and to identify patterns of misconduct. In our latest report published on December 3, we found that in terms of the nature of complaints, the “other” category typically constituted the largest share as it includes allegations that fall beyond the definition of serious misconduct provided by the Supreme Court and stipulated in respective state police legislations. In Assam, one of the few states to provide this data, 84% of complaints (1,118 out of 1,352) between 2018 and 2023 (March) were of “any other” category that included police inaction, negligence, delay in investigation, harassment, threats and misbehaviour. Complaints alleging non-registration of FIR constituted the second highest, at 9%.

This data cannot be used as an indication of Assam’s performance against all states, as only 10 other states/UTs had operational PCAs, including Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttarakhand. Seventeen years after the top court’s directive, most states and UTs have long-running vacancies that render the existing authorities non-functional or include serving government/police officials that call the independence of these authorities into question.

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PCAs are independent police oversight bodies that have the jurisdiction to inquire into police misconduct including deaths and rape in police custody, grievous hurt, extortion, land grabbing etc. If their inquiry reveals police misconduct, these authorities can recommend the registration of an FIR or initiation of a departmental inquiry against the police personnel.

Our recent report, which analysed complaints data across all state-level PCAs currently functional for the first time, found that the operational PCAs received a high volume of complaints. Delhi for example receives more than 2,000 cases every year — that is the highest recorded. Complaints are received in similar high volumes (600-700 annually) in Maharashtra and Kerala. This shows that alleged incidents of police misconduct are much higher than those that get captured by the NCRB.

Even if all states instituted PCAs, the next challenge to solve would be to get the action recommended by these bodies to be implemented by the state government. A high number of vacancies in appointments, long and complex procedures, and dependence on state police’s cooperation for inquiries all result in inquiries that take several months, sometimes even years. And often, when action is finally recommended after such a long period of inquiry, the state government does not implement it, protecting the police officers from accountability.

This culture of resisting police accountability has a massive impact on the lives of ordinary citizens who have few avenues for redressal. At least in the states where such PCAs exist, they have a forum where they can submit their grievances. However, till such time that recommendations from these PCAs are made binding on the state government, police accountability will remain elusive.

Aditi Pradhan is the lead author of CHRI’s report: Police Complaints Authorities in India: Status, Gaps and Challenges, 2023. The report was co-authored by Devyani Srivastava. The views expressed are personal.