Gujarat Hardlook | 75 custodial deaths in 5 years: A problem Gujarat encounters

The incident dates back to November 6, 2021, when the Surendranagar police allegedly shot dead Hanifkhan Jat Malek, 45, a member of the ‘Talpatri’ gang and his 14-year-old son Madeenkhan, while “firing in self-defence”.

Hanifkhan’s 13-year-old daughter Suhanakhan moved the sessions court on the directions of the Gujarat High Court, which directed an investigation against the policemen involved in the firing. An FIR was registered on May 29, 2025, against Sub-Inspector Virendrasinh Jadeja, head constables Rajeshbhai Mithapara and Kirit Solanki; and constables Shaileshbhai Kathevadiya, Digvijaysinh Zala, Prahladbhai Charmata and Manubhai Fatepara, booking them for murder, at Bajana police station. In seven months, police filed a closure report before a magisterial court in Surendranagar, The Indian Express has learnt.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Jugal D Purohit, the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, told The Indian Express, “After investigation, we have filed a C-summary in this case before the court. We found that the police had fired on the two persons (Hanifkhan and Madeenkhan) in self-defence.”

A C-summary indicates “nil findings” of guilt on the part of the accused persons. The Surendranagar magisterial court is expected to hear the case soon.

According to NCRB data, in the five years (2019-2023), there were three incidents of accused persons dying in custody, allegedly as a fallout of physical assault by the police (One in 2019 and two in 2021).

An encounter and a suicide

In the latest ‘police encounter’ reported in the state, the Gujarat police shot dead a 32-year-old man, Vipul alias Neel Vishnu Parmar, at a secluded spot along the Narmada Canal in Adalaj of Gandhinagar district on September 24, 2025, four days after he allegedly assaulted a young couple in their vehicle, killing the man, a fashion model named Vaibhav Manvani, with 12 stab wounds, on his 25th birthday.

Parmar had been accused or convicted in at least 10 other cases, including two cases of loot and one of murder. In all three cases, the victims were either alone or a couple who were sitting in a lonely stretch of the Narmada canal in the Adalaj area.
According to the Gandhinagar Local Crime Branch, Parmar snatched the weapon of a police personnel and fired at them, injuring one, during a crime scene reconstruction. The police fired in self-defence, killing him, they claimed. A magisterial inquiry is ongoing in the case.

NCRB data shows three custodial deaths linked to alleged police assault between 2019 and 2023

Earlier last year, Karansinh Malaji Jadeja, a 21-year-old man from Bharana village of Dwarka district, died after consuming a poisonous substance, herbicide ‘Sarvanash’.

Jadeja had allegedly attempted suicide after he, along with his friend, were allegedly stopped by police on August 17 and thrashed on the road and at the Vadinar harbour police chowki. He ingested herbicide on August 18 and died in hospital 11 days later.

Subsequently, an FIR was filed in the case on September 4, 2025, at Vadinar Marine Police station, booking head constables Pradipsinh alias Pradyumansinh Dhirubha Gohil and Karsan Rajsinh Gojiya for assault and abetment to suicide of Karansinh.

Police inspector M R Sauvseta, now serving in Kalyanpur police station, who investigated the case and filed the chargesheet in December 2025, told The Indian Express, “Their anticipatory bail pleas were rejected by the sessions court as well as the Gujarat High Court, following which they were arrested and sent to judicial custody. In December 2025, I filed the chargesheet on the basis of evidence that included several videos of the deceased saying that the reason for him attempting suicide was the two police personnel beating them. Karansinh also said this in his dying declaration before an executive magistrate.”

Minors among victims of police ‘atrocities’

On September 13, 2025, four constables of Botad Town police station, including Kaushik Jani, Yogesh Solanki, Ajay Rathod, Kuldeepsinh Vaghela and other unknown persons, were booked for alleged police brutality against a 17-year-old youth for several days in August.

A petition in this case is currently listed in the Gujarat High Court. The minor was allegedly severely beaten up by the accused police personnel for 8-9 days while under illegal confinement by the constables, who allegedly also extorted Rs 50,000 from his elderly grandparents. On January 9, the Gujarat High Court disposed of the Special Criminal Application (SCRA) after the police said that an FIR had been registered in the case and two of five accused had been arrested and chargesheeted in the case.

Investigation Officer DySP Maharshi Rawal of Botad Police was unavailable for comment.

In another instance, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on October 15, 2025, took suo motu cognizance of media reports of the alleged torture of a minor boy at a police station in Rajkot city. The incident of September 1 came to light only on October 6 after a video was circulated on social media platforms. The video purportedly showed a man sitting on a chair, holding a boy writhing in pain, by his hair, pulling out handfuls of it and throwing it in the dustbin, laughing and smiling as the boy pleaded with him to stop. The video had allegedly been shot at the staff room of a police station.

On October 6, a sanitary worker and a constable were booked under the BNS and Juvenile Justice Act. In this case, investigation officer police inspector S R Meghani told The Indian Express, “On the basis of evidence, we filed a chargesheet against the accused constable as well as the sanitation worker in December last year. They were not sent to judicial custody as the allegations are for crimes whose punishment is less than seven years. The trial in the case has begun.”

Maharashtra, Gujarat top in custodial deaths

The latest NCRB report for 2023, published in October last year, shows that Maharashtra and Gujarat made up for nearly half of all custodial deaths reported in India in 2023, accounting for 30 of the total 62 deaths. Notably, these two states have accounted for the highest number of custodial deaths in the last three years — 2021, 2022 and 2023. Gujarat reported 13 custodial deaths in 2023 and Maharashtra saw 17 cases.

Data from the Crime In India reports of the NCRB shows that illnesses and suicide, are the two leading causes of custodial deaths in Gujarat as well as the rest of the country. The data does not differentiate if those who died of illness had comorbidities. Of the 13 custodial deaths in Gujarat in 2023, five prisoners died allegedly by suicide, seven due to illness and one person due to a previous injury. Across India in 2023, of the total 62 custodial deaths, 24 prisoners reportedly died by suicide, and 27 due to illnesses.

In the five years between 2019 and 2023, of the 75 custodial deaths in Gujarat, 31 died by suicide and 32 died of illness. Similarly, across India, of the total 386 custodial deaths in five years, 150 reportedly died by suicide and 167 due to illnesses.

Gujarat Police shooting cases in 2025
Apart from the incident that caused the death of Vipul alias Neel Purohit in Gandhinagar, there were seven more instances in a span of 50 days in the latter half of 2025, in which the Gujarat police shot and injured accused persons, in one leg or both, while the accused allegedly tried to attack them or escape their custody.

Ramsingh Tersingh Dudwa, 32, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, was sentenced to death on Saturday by a trial court, for raping a minor girl in Rural Rajkot, prompting deputy CM Harsh Sanghavi to say that any offence against girls and women would end up in a death penalty.

Over a month ago, on December 10, when the accused was taken for reconstructing the crime, he had allegedly tried to attack the police team with a scythe and was shot in both legs. Dudwa’s was among six such cases of police shooting at accused persons in the month of December 2025 alone.

Around 7:45 pm on December 30, 2025, when the Gujarat Police’s State Monitoring Cell (SMC) was returning with an accused in an SUV by road from Guwahati, Assam, the man identified as Ashok Punaram Panwar (Bishnoi) allegedly tried to strangle the sub-inspector driving the vehicle with the seat belt as as they entered Gujarat from Dahod district.

The accused, Panwar alias Bishnoi, allegedly caught hold of the driver’s seatbelt, wrapped it around the neck of sub-inspector K D Raviya, according to the police account. Two other suspects were being taken in a second vehicle tailing the SUV.

Police inspector R J Khant shot Panwar, an alleged leader of a bootlegging gang, who was booked under Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GujCTOC), in the leg, and then took him to a Community Health Centre (CHC) where doctors referred the patient to Zydus Civil Hospital in Dahod. Hours earlier on the same day, December 30, the Surendranagar police had shot at a riot accused in the right leg after he “attacked” a policeman with a knife when they took him to the scene of crime for reconstruction.

The Surendranagar incident took place between 5 pm and 6 pm in Shiyani village in Limbdi on December 30. The accused, Divyaraj alias Bull Shiva Borana, was booked on December 2 on charges of rioting, and other BNS sections, after he along with others allegedly attacked a shop owner at his residence over purchase of grains.

Sub-Inspector V M Kodiyatar fired five rounds from his service weapon of which one hit Divyaraj, injuring him in the right leg, after he allegedly attacked the police team with a knife during reconstruction of the crime scene.

In all, December 2025 witnessed six such incidents of policemen shooting at accused in their custody, two in a single day. Two of these accused were involved in sexual assault and rape cases.

November 11: In Bilimora town of Navsari, Inspector C H Panara of the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) “thwarted” an “escape attempt” by alleged weapons trafficker Yash Singh Sundersingh and three others, by firing at him after he “fired two rounds at the police team”.

December 7: Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad City Police shot and injured on the leg, a rape accused Moinuddin Badshah, when he allegedly attempted to assault the police team and seize a weapon from Inspector Imran Ghasura at crime scene, during reconstruction.

December 15 : Surat City Police shot and injured in the right foot, Shivakanth Lallan Yadav alias Shiva Takla (28) after he allegedly tried to snatch the service pistol of a sub-inspector who was part of the police team transporting him from Ahmedabad to Surat while in their custody (not in remand).
December 20: Gandhinagar Police shot at Ramganit Devnandan Ramroop Yadav (40), accused of raping a 4-year-old girl, when he allegedly attempted to escape police custody after the reconstruction of the crime scene.

Most deaths ‘not in remand’

NCRB data shows that the highest number of custodial deaths year on year takes place while ‘not in remand’ rather than ‘in-remand’, most of them being reported as death by illness or suicide. NCRB defines ‘Not in Remand’ as persons arrested and yet to be produced before court. It defines ‘In Remand’ as persons in police/judicial remand.

While the number of deaths ‘not in remand’ in both states were the same at 13, Maharashtra reported four deaths ‘in remand’ in 2023, against none in Gujarat, shows data from the NCRB. In the five years between 2019 and 2023, Gujarat reported 75 custodial deaths but only 2 of them were ‘in-remand’ custody while 73 were in not-in-remand custody. Across India, of 386 custodial deaths in these 5 years, a total of 231 were ‘not in remand’ custody while 155 were ‘in remand.’