Context

• In the dim light of a crime scene, two archetypes of policing emerge, Sherlock Holmes and Dirty Harry and Holmes is the emblem of reason: calm, methodical, and devoted to logic.
• He sifts through chaos with precision, guided by evidence and a belief that truth must be discovered, not forced.
• Dirty Harry, on the other hand, represents the opposite: brash, violent, and dismissive of rules; Justice, for him, is delivered swiftly, regardless of procedure or accuracy.
• These fictional figures reflect two very real and divergent models of policing in India. In a nation governed by law, the pressing question is not just how we catch criminals, but what kind of justice we are willing to accept, one driven by truth or one fuelled by vengeance.

The Cost of Impunity: A National Crisis

• The death of 27-year-old Ajith Kumar in police custody in Tamil Nadu is not an aberration but a symptom of a deeper malaise.
• Despite previous reform recommendations, including those from the Tamil Nadu Police Commission, torture and custodial violence remain rampant.
• Between 2018 and 2023, 687 people died in police custody across Indian, average of two to three deaths per week. States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu top this grim list.
• These figures are likely understatements. Many deaths are cloaked under vague labels like suicide or natural causes.
• Torture often occurs away from formal detention spaces, in police vans, remote buildings, or even cow sheds, as in Ajith’s case.
• Most victims come from India's most marginalised communities: daily-wage labourers, Dalits, tribals, migrants, and slum dwellers.
• Thus, custodial torture is not merely an issue of poor policing, it is an expression of structural violence rooted in caste, class, and power disparities.

The Legal and Moral Vacuum

• Despite multiple legal safeguards, from the Supreme Court’s D.K. Basu (1996) guidelines to the reaffirmation of bodily autonomy in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017), custodial violence remains entrenched.
• The 273rd Report of the Law Commission (2017) strongly recommended a dedicated anti-torture law, but Parliament has failed to act.
• India still has not ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
• In 2025, the Global Torture Index ranked India as a high-risk country, an indictment that must not be ignored.

The Scientific and Strategic Case Against Torture

• The argument against custodial torture extends beyond ethics and legality, it is grounded in science.
• Torture, popularised in media as a tool for urgent truth extraction, is in fact counterproductive.
• In his book Why Torture Doesn’t Work, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara explains how torture disrupts brain regions essential for memory and reasoning.
• Victims, impaired and desperate, often provide false information just to stop the pain.
• Historical examples reinforce this. During the Algerian War, torture by French forces led to false intelligence.
• The CIA’s infamous enhanced interrogation techniques failed to produce actionable insights, as concluded by the U.S.
• Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2014 report. Worse still, these methods misdirected investigations and wasted precious time.
• The case of Ajith Kumar, where a coerced confession led to a cow shed instead of evidence, tragically echoes this pattern.

What Actually Works: The Case for Reform

• The United Kingdom’s response to the wrongful conviction of six men in the Birmingham pub bombings was to move away from confession-based policing.
• It adopted the PEACE model, Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, and Evaluation.
• This method prioritises rapport, open-ended questioning, and transparency, reducing false confessions and increasing both conviction accuracy and public trust.
• This model has been successfully adopted by other nations, including Norway, Canada, and New Zealand.
• The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture endorses it, and peer-reviewed studies by the U.S. High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group confirm its effectiveness over coercive methods.
• Real-world examples further affirm this. Norwegian police obtained a full confession from mass murderer Anders Breivik through calm, professional questioning.
• In the U.S., Najibullah Zazi, involved in a terror plot, cooperated fully with investigators who treated him respectfully, leading to the dismantling of a broader network.

Conclusion

• Every custodial death is not just a tragedy; it is a declaration of the state’s failure to protect its citizens.
• India must act decisively. Ratifying the UN Convention Against Torture, enacting a standalone anti-torture law, embedding the PEACE model into police training, and enforcing zero tolerance for custodial abuse are immediate, achievable reforms.
• When truth can be found without violence, when the facts can emerge through patience and intellect, as Sherlock Holmes shows us, why should we endorse Dirty Harry’s path of destruction?