Custodial Violence in India: Why Legal Reform Alone May Not Shift Institutional Incentives
The document argues that India’s custodial torture problem is sustained by closed-setting abuse, evidentiary barriers, and institutional self-investigation dynamics, making accountability outcomes rare despite constitutional safeguards. It further suggests that caste and class shape exposure to custodial harm and that reforms must extend beyond UNCAT ratification to independent mechanisms, documentation standards, and reparations.