Overview
- The Maharashtra Home Department published a Government Resolution on July 28, 2026 that turns scattered court and NHRC/SHRC directions into a single statewide standard operating procedure for custodial deaths.
- The GR adopts the NHRC definition of custodial death, covers both formal and constructive custody, and requires police to secure the scene, register the incident on CCTNS as an accidental death, and preserve all CCTV and digital evidence.
- All custodial-death probes will be led by designated agencies: the Mumbai Crime Branch for Brihanmumbai and the State CID for the rest of Maharashtra, with a magisterial inquiry and 24‑hour reporting to human-rights bodies and senior police officers.
- Post-mortems must be done at listed government medical colleges by a panel of at least three experts with full audio-video recording of dissection, while detainees must get a pre-arrest medical exam and health checks every 48 hours.
- The GR creates state and district oversight committees, requires CCTV with night vision and 18-month backups, mandates checks of officers’ CDR/SDR when abuse is suspected, and offers limited ex-gratia payments to heirs if negligence or criminality by police is found.