🔆 Custodial Deaths Spark Urgent Call for Reform
📍 Ajith Kumar’s death in Tamil Nadu highlights the systemic rot in India’s police system and the urgent need for holistic reform.
✅ Grim Statistics (2021–2025)
• Ajith Kumar (2025): Temple guard, autopsy revealed 44 wounds, burns, drug exposure.
• Vignesh (2022): Died in Chennai police custody within hours.
• Raja (2024): Dalit cook died over petty theft charges; his family awaits compensation.
• Auto driver (2023): Died in suspicious police custody.
✅ Root Cause: Systemic Brutality
• These aren’t isolated – they are outcomes of a system that prioritises enforcement over empathy.
• Focus on gear, not conscience: Police trained to use weapons, but not to process trauma or manage emotional toll.
✅ Key Reforms Suggested
🔸 Mental Health & Budgeting
• Allocate just 5% of police budget to:
• District-level mental health units
• Quarterly counselling, sensitisation, refresher courses
🔸 Institutionalise Wellness in Policing
• Officers face pressure from political, communal, and gang tensions – leads to burnout → brutality
• Wellness support is not luxury, but a necessity
🔸 Curriculum Overhaul
• Modernise police training:
• Include human rights, ethics, tech-enabled investigation
• Move beyond colonial frameworks
🔸 Legislative Measures
• Enact anti-custodial violence law with:
• Time-bound probes
• Video-recorded interrogations
• Civil society oversight
🔸 Technology as Safeguard
• CCTV must be tamper-proof, real-time audited, and trigger accountability, not just surveillance.
✅ Reimagining Policing Ethos
• Police uniform must symbolise service and restraint, not fear.
• Every custodial death is a breakdown of moral contract between state and people.
📝 Prelims MCQ
Which of the following is a suggested reform to address custodial violence in India?
A) Introduction of fast-track courts
B) Mandatory annual police transfers
C) District-level mental health units
D) Nationalised recruitment of police
Answer: C
?? Mains GS2 Q
Di
scuss the factors behind custodial deaths in India and suggest structural reforms needed to restore public trust in law enforcement.
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eform #CustodialDeaths #CriminalJustice #polity #governance
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