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Amnesty says torture, ill-treatment
endemic in India: PTI

Amnesty International Wednesday said despite several positive initiatives taken by courts in recent years "torture and ill-treatment continues to be endemic throughout India".

"Amnesty International believes that there is a depressing repetitiveness about statements made by government officials, members of the judiciary, senior police officials and others in official reports and studies during the 1990s and further into the past," the human rights watchdog said in a special report on India.

Amnesty said it continued to receive numerous complaints of torture and ill-treatment from all states, which indicated that Supreme Court orders, National Human Rights Commission guidelines and official sanctions have not deterred officials from inflicting torture on individuals in custody.

"Methods of torture range from electric shocks to suspension from ceilings to severe beating with lathis [wooden sticks] and kicking," it said in its 68-page report.

"While acknowledging several positive attempts to address the problem of torture and ill-treatment over a number of years, notably by courts and more recently over almost a decade now by the NHRC as well as other statutory bodies and numerous committees, the organisation continues to be concerned about the endemic nature of torture and ill-treatment in the country and non-implementation of legal safeguards," said the report released to the press.

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