Punjab jails fare badly in NCRB report

Punjab prison system needs urgent correctional measures as the state has topped in the number of human rights abuse complaints in the country, besides being among the top three states in the categories of jail escape, parole jump, custodial suicide and unnatural deaths, said the NCRB Report-2019.

The report released in New Delhi said as many as 180 prisoners complained to the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in Punjab, followed by Madhya Pradesh (64) and Maharashtra (45) in 2019.

The report said with 103 (out of 180) pending complaints of human rights abuse, Punjab was on the top in the country as per the pendency of complaints list. Punjab is second on the dubious list of unnatural deaths in the jail with 20 cases. As many as 29 such incidents were reported in Uttar Pradesh jails while West Bengal reported 12.

The state is also second in the country in the number of suicides in the prisons. Of the total 116 suicides in the country, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number (20) followed by Punjab (13) and West Bengal (11) during 2019.

The state was third in incidents of escape from police custody. Highest of such cases were reported by Uttar Pradesh (25) followed by Maharashtra (17) and Punjab (14). The state was, however, fourth in relation to re-arrest of the escapees. During the year 2019, a total of 468 persons escaped from lawful custody and 231 persons were arrested again.

In 2019, only one firing incident in a jail was reported from Punjab, in which, one inmate died. Punjab figured high in number of release of undertrials and on parole. Punjab released 8,116 undertrials followed by 6,822 in Rajasthan. Of the 205 prisoners who jumped parole, maximum absconders were reported by Rajasthan (48) followed by Gujarat (41) and Punjab (35).

National Crime Record Bureau

NCRB, headquartered in New Delhi, was set-up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
It was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985).