There are different types of violence taking place around us and one of them is custodial violence. Custodial violence is the violence which takes place in the judicial and police custody where an individual who has done a crime is tortured mentally as well as physically. To an extent they are broken down by senior officials in order to satisfy the hunger of power that they have.
The human rights are at stake as custodial violence is a crime which is the outburst against humanity and is a root obstacle in a Democratic country.

Especially in a country like India, custodial violence has become arduous and tough to deal with as power plays a huge role which is in the hand of the police officers who can either use the power to protect and enable laws for the citizens or can even use the power they have for mere greed to fulfill their desires. The cruelty done by police officers are increasing day by day as several cases are coming up of police ferocity against the offenders and the reason behind this is not that these police officers have any personal grudge against them but mainly because of systematic compulsions.

And custodial violence did not start today or tomorrow, it began during the British days if there was no tactic support of bureaucrats, politicians and judiciary but in the recent years a change can be seen, the public, the media, the human rights commission are taking up initiatives to improve how the offenders are treated, they are showing concerns through activisms, huge media coverage, making awareness and even civil society intervention is taking place to combat the brutality of custodial violence and uphold human dignity.

It is important to punish offenders for their mistakes and make them go through trial in order to bring the truth out but it is also important to respect their boundaries and to not cross the line only because you have the power to misuse it. No matter how atrocious the crime is, the criminal has all the rights to be treated with dignity.

In a recent interview an aspiring police officer was asked what is the reason for him to take up this noble profession and what inspired him to become a police officer. It felt like a great honour to listen to him but it turned out very disappointing as he said, I am going to use my power in such a manner that I am going to beat the person who did the crime so much as well as going to beat his parents for giving birth to a person like him.

And the reason for acting in such a manner was the power he would be getting which he was thinking to use illegally.

Power is not just a word, it has the capacity to control people and this power is legally given to officials to ensure the safety and not to demotivate an individual mentally. As mental torture is the basic set back of custodial violence, from which it could become impossible for the individual to come out of even if they want.

There are several ways for brutality, torture and extortion which comes under custodial violence and it can be segregated into, sexual violence, physiological violence, different methods of torture, physical violence and various forms of ill treatment are done to break the morale and confidence of the victim. The code of criminal procedure, 1973 contains provisions for the safeguard of victims who have suffered custodial violence.

It is the duty if the police officers to ensure the protection of the inmates and provide all the facilities no matter how heinous the crime they have done, they are humans and should be treated like humans and not animals.

Custodial violence continues to exist but with time things and mentality can be changed in order to understand and respect the emotions of the other person and dealing with the offenders in a sensible and mature manner so that proper, effective and efficient justice can be provided as it is very important in a civilized society to be treated with honour and naked violation of human dignity should not take place.