Nagaland recorded 3 custodial deaths in 2020 — NCRB

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Jan. 18 (EMN): Three prisoners have died in judicial custody during 2020 in Nagaland, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The three prisoners in Nagaland died of ‘natural causes’, while 42 prisoners in Assam, three in Mizoram and one in Sikkim also died due to natural causes.

Three prisoners died a natural death and two due to ‘unnatural’ causes in Tripura, while Manipur reported one death due to unnatural causes and Meghalaya reported three natural and one un-natural death in 2020.

It stated that death of a prisoner is always of serious concern for the prison administration and sometimes, such death leads to law and order problems.

The record revealed that a total of 1,887 prisoners have died in the country, out of which 1,642 were natural deaths, 189 due to un-natural causes and 56 deaths were reported as ‘causes not known yet’ during 2020.

NCRB maintained that out of the 1,642 natural deaths, there were 1,542 deaths due to ‘illness’ and 100 deaths due to ‘ageing’.

 Furthermore, out of the 1,542 deaths due to illness, majority of the deaths were reported under heart problems (480), lung related ailments (224), kidney problems (92), tuberculosis (TB) (65 deaths), cancer (64), liver related ailments (61 deaths), brain haemorrhage (39) and HIV (37)

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of deaths due to natural causes (394) followed by Bihar (119) and Madhya Pradesh (116) during 2020.

Among 189 un-natural deaths in prisons, suicide (156) was the predominant cause followed by accidental deaths (eight), murder by inmates (eight), deaths due to firing (five), execution (four), deaths due to assault by outside elements (three), deaths due to negligence or excess (one) and ‘others’ (four).

Uttar Pradesh also reported the highest number of unnatural deaths (33) followed by West Bengal (22) and Delhi (20).