In part four of this series, we discuss the legal hurdles in convicting police officials in cases of custodial deaths in India. We also attempt to shed light on some of the existing biases and prejudices within state institutions against marginalized communities, such as poor, working class Muslims and those belonging to Scheduled Castes. These biases make custodial deaths by the State “justifiable” and in some cases “desirable” due to the entrenched notion of the victim’s “criminality.” Multiple factors show that violence against minorities and marginalized communities is de facto identitarian violence: for example, when persons from minority communities are in custody in relation to cow slaughter or terrorism, their identity makes their situation doubly precarious. As highlighted in the introductory essay in this series, victims of custodial violence and torture in India are mostly men from oppressed castes, lower class and religious minority groups. Arrested and in custody on…

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