Custodial Deaths & the Anti-Torture Law Gap

People keep dying in Indian lock-ups and jails, year after year, and almost no one is held to account. Government figures placed before Parliament in March 2026 put custodial deaths at 170 for 2025-26 alone, with a single disciplinary action across five years. Behind the numbers sits a structural gap: India signed the UN anti-torture convention back in 1997 but never ratified it, and the standalone law that would criminalise torture has been promised, drafted and allowed to lapse. Court-made safeguards fill part of the void, but only part.