Table of Contents

Preface
Torture as as Public Secret...Introduction
The International Regime on Torture
I: INDIA
India′s Public Secret
Rights Discourse: Rhetoric and Reality
The Constitution and Custodial Rights
The Penal Code and the Law of Evidence
Due Process: CrPC, Police Acts and Prison Manuals
State of Custodial Justice
Judicial Trends
Perspectives on Torture
Six Case Studies
II: PAKISTAN
Pakistan′s Regimes
Subverting Due Process: The Force of Religion and the Force of Necessity
The Judiciary
International and Statutory Commitments
Correcting the Custodians
III: BANGLADESH
Martial Law and Other Regimes: 1971-2010
International Commitments and Domestic Legal Frameworks
Court Directives and Recommendations of Judicial Commissions
Case Studies
IV: SRI LANKA
History and Politics
The Constitution and Emergency Legislation
Criminal Law and Custodial Justice
International Law: Obligations and Compliance
Enforced Disappearances
V: NEPAL
An Overview
The 1990 Constitution
Accountability under the Interim Constitution
The Army
Nepal′s Legal Framework
The Torture Compensation Act, 1996
The Courts and Custodial Justice
Five Case Studies
Two Interviews with Law Enforcers
VI: AFGHANISTAN
The Land and the People
The Afghan Nation State and the Great Game
1920-1978: Challenges to Constitutionalism
Human Rights and the Soviet Occupation (1978-1992)
Terror and Counter Terror
Afghanistan′s Human Rights Norms
Criminal Justice and the State of Human Rights
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Nitya Ramakrishnan is a well-known lawyer practising in New Delhi, India. She has many terror trial defences to her credit, notably the Indian Parliament Attack Case and the Haren Pandya Murder Case. Also reputed for her media-related cases, Ramakrishnan successfully challenged the censorship imposed on many political documentaries such as Bhopal—Beyond Genocide and Punjab—From Behind the Barricades.

Reviews

The book is a mesh of subtle interactions between the lived, the legal and the theoretical aspects around custodial violence. And it succeeds in striking a balance between the three. It is an ideal entry level book for lay persons and at the same time caters equally to research scholars, students and lawyers looking for material for further research on practice....Readers will be benefited from extremely relevant information...the book serves as a very sound and engaging tool in the campaign against custodial violence.
*The Book Review, Vol 37, October 2013*

[The book] highlights the practice of custodial torture in South Asia and the urgency to engage with it-through the system and through society.... Ramakrishna’s book brings within its compass the entirety of complex dynamics related to the practice of custodial torture, tracing the past and present day nature of the conflict between the norm and its practice, not just in India but also the five nations surrounding it.
*The Hindu*

The book is an ambitious exercise...performed extraordinarily well with the help of researchers.... [A] timely reminder to strengthen our legal system so as to eschew impunity provisions that come in the way of ensuring justice.
*Frontline, 13 December 2013*

Commitment to humane treatment of suspects in custody by six South Asian nations — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan — forms the topic of this book by eminent lawyer and activist Nitya Ramakrishnan…. The six case studies make for an agonizing read…. This book is a call, an alarm, a plea for doing something concrete to end this brutal system of interrogation.
*The Tribune, 9 May, 2016*