HC orders notices in custodial death cases

The Karnataka High Court in a suo-motu case on custodial deaths in prisons across the state, ordered notices to be sent to the Chief Secretary, Principal secretary of the Home Department, state police chief and Deputy General of Police and Inspector General (Prisons) .

The court has taken up a suo-motu case following Supreme Court direction to chief justices of high courts over custodial deaths in prisons across the country.

The apex court asked all high courts to register petitions on their own to identify the next of kin of the prisoners who admittedly died unnatural deaths between 2012 and 2015 as revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data; and to award them suitable compensations where they had not been awarded as such.

The Supreme Court had directed high courts similarly while hearing a 2013 PIL on prevailing inhuman conditions prevailing in 1,382 prisons across the country.

Acting chief justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar were hearing the petition in cognizance with the orders of the Supreme Court.