UNMASKING THE REALITY: INTERROGATION OR

CUSTODIAL TORTURE?

Rising cases of custodial deaths and torture faced during detention and police custody raise
serious concerns regarding the integrity of the rule of law and the operation of the criminal
justice system. The question before us is that, in the process of attaining pieces of evidence for
justice, has the criminal justice administration systemized the use of torture in India? Many
authors have talked about these incidences in their research works concerning the “rights of
prisoners” but this paper examines how this situation is rarely seen in conjunction with “freedom
from torture” as a right and how this is affecting the efficiency of our justice delivery system. It
seems like India now has normalized the use of torture for gaining pieces of evidence in police
custody because third-degree torture as reported by NCAT, is used by police often including
hammering iron nails in the body, apart from the more common torture methods such as
punching, kicking with boots etc. This paper investigates the inconsistency between laws on
torture faced while interrogation and the Indian criminal administration. The purpose of this
paper is also to explain why the lack of legislation on custodial torture in India and non-
compliance with international treaties is a serious problem. A major finding is that the balance of
powers within the criminal justice administration is disturbed due to the above-discussed issue as
it has placed enormous power in the hand of executives (police in particular).