Gandhinagar, Mar 17 (IANS): In a shocking revelation, the Gujarat government said on Wednesday that a total of 157 custodial deaths were reported from across the state in two years from 2019 to 2020. Surprisingly, out of these, the kin of only one victim was compensated by the government with an amount of Rs 2,50,000.

The information regarding custodial deaths was sought by the Congress legislator from Petlad, Niranjan Patel, who asked for data on deaths in police custody in the state in 2019 and 2020.

The state admitted that a total of 70 incidents of custodial deaths were reported in 2019 while 87 such incidents were reported in 2020.

Regarding Patel's question as to how much compensation was provided to the family members of the victims, Gujarat Home Minister Pradipsinh Jadeja informed the House that only the family of one victim was provided Rs 2,50,000 in Surat, while the others didn't need to be compensated as per the proposals received by the state government.

On another question over custodial deaths in Ahmedabad and Kutch in the last two years, raised by Jamalpur-Khadia legislator Imran Khedawala, the state answered that a total of 48 such deaths were reported by the police.

Action has been taken against three police inspectors, five sub-inspectors, 19 constables, four ASIs and seven other policing staff in connection with custodial deaths in the state reported in 2019 and 2020.