Unnatural Deaths in Police Lockup/Prisons of North Maharashtra Region: A 15 Year Retrospective Study.

Preventing torture in custody and ensuring strict compliance of its guidelines in custodial deaths is one of the important agenda of NHRC. This article presents data of 19 deaths in custody/prison in north Maharashtra region from the period of 15 years from 01/01/2000 to 31/12/2014. 12 deaths were caused due to suicide, 2 deaths were caused due to homicide, 5 deaths were caused due to accident. Hanging was the most common means of committing suicide. Items of clothing were the most commonly used objects, for committing suicides by hanging. Based on these findings, several measures for prevention of deaths in police custody are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]