illegal or unnecessary; over 75 per cent of all the complaints of human rights violations received were against the police. Moreover, custodial violence, torture and extrajudicial executions continue with impunity. A 2008 report said that 1.8 million people were being tortured in police custody every year in India. The UN Convention against Torture is yet to be ratified. (The writer is a former Director General of Police in Northeast India and author of ‘State, policy and Conflicts in Northeast India, Routledge, 2015)