As many as 952 custodial deaths took place in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh in the years 2020-22, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday, 26 July.
While the Yogi Adityanath-led state had 451 custodial death cases in 2020-21, the number has gone up to 501 in 2021-22, as per government data.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir has seen a nine-fold increase in police encounters in 2021-22 – highest in the country – followed by Assam where encounters rose by over four times as compared to the previous year.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Lower House that there were 82 cases of police encounters in 2020-21 in the country and the number has gone up to 151 in 2021-22.
Meanwhile, as per government data, while the number of custodial deaths in the country in 2020-21 was 1,940 cases, that number has gone up to 2,544 in 2021-22.
Data on Custodial Deaths From States in 2020 and 2021
West Bengal has seen a substantial increase in custodial death cases – 185 cases in 2020-21 to 257 in 2021-22.
Bihar had registered 159 custodial death cases in 2020-21 and the number has gone to 237 in 2021-22.
Madhya Pradesh had recorded 163 such cases and the number has risen to 201.
Similarly, Maharashtra registered 143 custodial death cases in 2020-21 and the number has gone up to 197 in 2021-22.
Data on Police Encounters From States in 2020 and 2021
According to the data tabled in Lok Sabha, there were just five police encounters in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020-21 and such cases have increased to 45 in 2021-22.
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had 16 and six encounters in 2020-21 respectively, and numbers have come down in 2021-22 with the former registering 11 cases and the latter recording just two such cases, according to the data.
There were just four police encounters in Assam in 2020-21 and the number has gone up to 18 in 2021-22, the data says.
Among other states, there were 24 police encounters in Chhattisgarh in 2020-21 and the number has risen to 30 in 2021-22. Similarly, in Jharkhand, there were five encounters in 2020-21 and number has increased to nine in 2021-22, the data showed.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)