Custodial Death Compensation in Bangladesh: The 2013 Act, Writ Remedies and the BLAST Guidelines

Custodial death compensation in Bangladesh: the law in 2026

Custodial death compensation in Bangladesh sits at the meeting point of criminal law and constitutional law. When a person dies in the hands of the police, RAB, a detective branch or any other state agency, the family has two distinct claims: a criminal case against the officers under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013, and a public-law claim against the State, brought by writ petition before the High Court Division. Families who understand both from the first week recover far more than those who pursue only one.

This guide explains how the 2013 Act works, what it pays and why that amount is widely criticised, how the High Court Division awards compensation under Article 102 of the Constitution, what the Appellate Division required of police and magistrates in Bangladesh v BLAST, and what the record of real cases shows in 2026. It closes with a practical sequence for families and their lawyers.

Summary: A family seeking redress for a death in custody can file a complaint before the Sessions Judge under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013, which fixes compensation of Tk 2 lakh payable by the convicted officer, and can separately petition the High Court Division under Article 102 for a declaration of illegality, an independent inquiry and public-law compensation from the State. The two remedies run in parallel and serve different purposes.

Key point: Only one conviction has been recorded under the 2013 Act in roughly 50 cases filed, and the family in that case reported in September 2026 that it had still received no compensation. A writ petition seeking compensation from the State, filed early and supported by preserved medical evidence, is often the more direct path to money and accountability.

At a glance

Swipe or scroll →

Table of Contents

Why custodial death compensation matters

Deaths in custody are not rare events in Bangladesh. The rights group Odhikar has counted 486 custodial deaths attributed to torture between 2001 and 22 June 2026, spread across every government in that period, including 29 under the interim government that followed the 2024 uprising and two in the first months of the government elected in February 2026.[6] The same research found no centralised database of custodial torture cases at the police, the home ministry or the judiciary.[5]

Against that background, custodial death compensation does two jobs. It provides some financial support to families who often lose a breadwinner, and it formally records that the State failed in its duty to keep alive a person it had taken into its control. That second function is the reason courts and commentators treat compensation from the State as a constitutional remedy rather than a charitable payment.[10]

The constitutional foundation

Article 32 of the Constitution protects life and personal liberty, Article 31 guarantees treatment in accordance with law, and Article 35(5) prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.[2] Article 44 guarantees the right to move the High Court Division under Article 102 to enforce those rights. A death in custody almost always engages all of them at once, which is why the writ jurisdiction is the natural forum for a claim against the State.

The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013

The Act, No 50 of 2013, was published on 27 October 2013 and took effect immediately. Its preamble records that Bangladesh became a party to the UN Convention against Torture on 5 October 1998 and that Article 35(5) of the Constitution prohibits torture.[1] It applies to every law enforcement agency, which section 2(4) defines to include the police, RAB, BGB, Customs, Immigration, CID, Special Branch, the detective branch, Ansar-VDP, the Coast Guard and any other government agency that enforces law.[1]

What counts as torture and custodial death

Section 2(6) defines torture as physical or mental suffering, including suffering inflicted to extract information or a confession, to punish or to intimidate, by or with the consent of a public official. Section 2(7) covers death in the custody of a public official, in illegal detention, during arrest and during interrogation, whether or not the person was a witness.[1] That reaches a police lock-up, a RAB camp, a detective branch office, a vehicle after arrest and a hospital bed under guard.

How a complaint is made

Where a person tells the court of torture, section 4 requires it to record the statement and order an immediate medical examination, a female doctor for a woman, with a report within 24 hours. Under section 5 the court directs the Superintendent of Police or a senior officer to register a case and, on the victim's application, may order a judicial inquiry instead; the investigator must not be junior to the accused. Sections 6 and 7 let a third party inform the court or complain to the Sessions Judge or a Superintendent of Police.[1] Families who fear retaliation can therefore act through a relative or a rights organisation.

Investigation, trial and protection

Section 8 requires the investigation to finish within 90 working days; otherwise the investigating officer must explain the delay in person, and the court decides any extension after hearing the victim. Section 10 makes the offences cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable. Section 11 lets the complainant seek protection, decided within 14 days of a seven-day notice. Under section 12, war, emergency, political instability and superior orders are no defence. Trial lies before the Sessions Judge within 180 days, extendable by 30, and section 16 allows appeals to the High Court Division, including by the family.[1]

Penalties and the section 15 payment

The penalties in section 15 are minimums. Torture carries rigorous imprisonment of at least five years or a fine of at least Tk 50,000, or both, plus Tk 25,000 to the victim. Where torture causes death, the punishment is rigorous imprisonment for life or a fine of at least Tk 1 lakh, or both, plus Tk 2 lakh to the family. Attempt, abetment and conspiracy carry at least two years or a fine of at least Tk 20,000, or both.[1] This is the only fixed statutory figure for custodial death compensation in Bangladesh, and the convicted offender pays it, not the State.[1] [8]

The limits of statutory custodial death compensation

The Act was a genuine advance, but three features limit its value as a source of money for families.

The amount is low and fixed

Tk 2 lakh bears no relationship to the income a family loses or the gravity of the wrong. Commentators have pointed out that Bangladesh's declaration on the Convention against Torture limits redress to what national law provides, which keeps the statutory amount as the ceiling in the criminal process.[8]

Payment depends on conviction and appeal

Because section 15 compensation follows conviction, nothing is payable until the trial ends. On paper the convicted person must deposit the fine and compensation with the trial court within 14 days of sentence, and no appeal lies until that is done.[1] Yet in the only conviction so far, the family reported in July 2025, with the officers' appeals pending, and again in September 2026 that it had not received a single taka. About 50 cases have been filed under the Act in 13 to 14 years.[5] [8]

The offender, not the State, pays

The Act places the payment on the individual officer, and section 13(3) makes liability for its offences personal.[1] An absconding or insolvent officer leaves the family with a paper order, and the agency itself faces no separate penalty for a death in its custody. That gap is precisely what the writ jurisdiction fills.

The Jonny case: the first conviction and its aftermath

Ishtiaque Hossain Jonny died after alleged torture following his detention at Pallabi Police Station, Dhaka, on 9 February 2014.[4] Police refused to accept the family's complaint, so Rocky went directly to court under the 2013 Act.[8] On 9 September 2020 the Metropolitan Sessions Judge in Dhaka convicted three officers under section 15(2), sentencing each to life imprisonment, a fine of Tk 1 lakh and Tk 2 lakh in compensation to the family, and sentenced two police informants to seven years.[4]

On 11 August 2025 the High Court Division upheld the life sentences of two officers, one absconding, each with Tk 2 lakh compensation and a Tk 1 lakh fine; cut the third officer's sentence to ten years, with Tk 25,000 compensation and a Tk 50,000 fine; and acquitted one informant. The family has sought leave to appeal the acquittal. Rocky told The Daily Star in September 2026 that the family had still received nothing, and reported an attempted intrusion at his home in August 2026.[5]

The lesson for families is practical. Even the best outcome under the Act produces custodial death compensation that is small, delayed and dependent on officers who may not pay. A parallel writ claim against the State should be considered from the outset, not as an afterthought.

Writ compensation under Article 102

The High Court Division's power to award compensation for breach of fundamental rights rests on Article 102 read with Article 44, but practitioners describe the case law as conservative and uneven.[2] [10] The clearest final award came in a negligence case. After four-year-old Jihad fell into an unprotected well shaft in a Dhaka railway colony in December 2014, the court directed compensation on 18 February 2016, and its full judgment, released in October 2017, required Bangladesh Railway and the Fire Service to pay Tk 10 lakh each within 90 days.[11] That reasoning applies with greater force where the State's own custody ends in death.

Public-law compensation versus damages in tort

A civil suit for damages in tort is available in theory but slow, expensive and largely out of reach for most families, which is why public-law compensation through the writ jurisdiction has become the main effective remedy.[10] The writ claim is against the State for its own constitutional failure under Articles 31, 32 and 35(5). It does not depend on identifying or convicting an individual officer.[2]

How the Court has approached quantum

Practitioners have criticised the courts for tokenising awards or confusing compensation with costs, for the absence of guidance on quantum and on which arm of the State should pay, and for the long delay in collecting an award even after judgment.[10] Families seeking custodial death compensation should therefore plead a specific, reasoned figure, supported by evidence of age, earnings and dependants, and name the authority that should pay.

Rules issued in custodial cases

In Md Limon Hossain's case, after a RAB-8 team allegedly shot him in 2011 and his leg was amputated, the High Court Division asked the government why the detention and shooting should not be declared illegal and why he should not receive Tk 2.6 crore. After Sultana Jasmine died two days after RAB detained her in March 2023, the Court issued a rule on 5 April 2023 questioning the legality of the detention and ordered a high-powered probe committee. In the 2021 death of Rejaul Karim Reja in Barishal, the Court ordered a magistrate's inquiry.[5]

Recent petitions seek far larger sums. In June 2024, on a writ by Ain o Salish Kendra over the death of Rubel Dey in Chattogram Central Jail, the Court asked why Tk 5 crore should not be paid to his family and ordered the Security Services Division to report custodial deaths over 20 years.[12] On 4 August 2026 another bench asked why Tk 5 crore should not be paid to the family of Mirza Ishtiaq Ahmed Pranto, a Faridpur law student who died in detective branch custody in June 2026, giving the Home Secretary, the IGP and others four weeks to reply.[9]

Those cases also show the weakness of the writ route: rules remain unheard for years when benches are reconstituted, and probe reports can be vague. Pressing for an early hearing date and for interim directions matters as much as the original filing. Our overview of writ petitions in Bangladesh explains how rules are issued, heard and made absolute, and the sibling guide to compensation in writ petitions covers quantum in more detail.

The BLAST guidelines on arrest, remand and death in custody

On 24 May 2016 a four-judge bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha dismissed the government's appeal against the High Court Division's 2003 judgment in Writ Petition No 3806 of 1998 and issued binding guidelines, reported as Bangladesh v Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) 8 SCOB (2016) AD 1.[3]

Directions to law enforcement

Officers arresting under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure must act on definite facts personally considered, prepare a memo of arrest signed by the arrestee, inform a relative or nominated friend within 12 hours, record injuries and obtain a doctor's certificate, and allow access to a lawyer. The forwarding letter seeking remand under section 167 must explain why investigation cannot finish within 24 hours and attach the case diary entries.[3]

Directions where a person dies in remand

If an accused dies during remand, the magistrate must order examination of the body by a medical board, with exhumation if the body has been buried. If the board finds the death homicidal, the magistrate must take cognizance under section 15 of the 2013 Act against the officer concerned and the officer in charge. Where medical evidence shows torture or death from torture, the magistrate must take cognizance suo motu under section 190(1)(c) without waiting for a complaint.[3]

These directions are binding under Article 111 of the Constitution and give families a concrete standard against which to measure what police and magistrates actually did. A writ petition that maps each departure from the guidelines is far stronger than one that pleads illegality in general terms. For the related safeguards in remand hearings, see our guide to police remand in Bangladesh.

2025 and 2026 developments

On 10 July 2025 the interim government's Council of Advisers approved accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which provides for independent visits to places of detention and lays the groundwork for a National Preventive Mechanism. On 24 July 2025 it approved a proposal to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to require notice to a detainee's family, friend or lawyer within 12 hours of arrest, reflecting one of the 2016 guidelines.[7] Bangladesh signed OPCAT later in 2025.[6]

Deaths in custody have nonetheless continued into 2026, including cases in Faridpur and Chattogram reported in June 2026.[6] Rights organisations continue to call for an independent investigating body outside the police and a witness protection law, and the Attorney General has publicly stated his aim of a Bangladesh without custodial torture or death.[5] The 2013 Act itself, including its compensation provisions, has not been amended.[1]

Choosing the right route

The routes are not alternatives. Most strong cases use two or three of them together, and the table below shows what each can and cannot achieve. On a phone, scroll it sideways.

The criminal complaint holds individuals to account; the writ petition holds the State to account and is the main vehicle for meaningful custodial death compensation; and an inquiry petition protects the evidence that both depend on. Where the person is still alive and held without lawful authority, habeas corpus comes first.

A practical sequence for families

The first days after a death in custody decide what can later be proved. The sequence below reflects how we approach these cases.

Swipe or scroll →

Keep a dated record of every refusal by police to register a case or hand over documents; refusals are themselves evidence in a writ petition. Never accept a private settlement from officers that purports to waive the family's rights against the State: the constitutional claim belongs to the family and cannot be bargained away informally.

Building a strong custodial death compensation claim

Evidence that carries weight

The decisive evidence is usually medical: the inquest report, the post-mortem, any medical board findings and photographs of injuries taken before burial. Add the memo of arrest, the general diary entry, the forwarding report and remand order, hospital records, CCTV requests and statements from those detained with the deceased. Each document either proves custody, proves injury or proves departure from the 2016 guidelines.[3]

Pleading the claim

A well-drafted petition seeks a declaration that the detention and death were without lawful authority, a direction for an independent judicial or high-powered inquiry, directions to register and investigate a case, and a specific sum by way of compensation with reasons. It names the Home Ministry, the head of the relevant force and the local officers as respondents. Our constitutional and writ litigation practice prepares these petitions with the criminal complaint in view, so that neither proceeding undermines the other.

Mistakes to avoid

• Burying without a second examination: if a post-mortem is doubted, ask the magistrate or the High Court Division for a medical board before burial.
• Relying only on section 15: statutory custodial death compensation is capped and depends on conviction.
• Leaving a rule unheard: move for listing and interim directions rather than waiting.
• Ignoring witness safety: use the section 11 protection petition early.

For the wider framework of rights in this area, see our guide to fundamental rights in Bangladesh.

Frequently asked questions

How much custodial death compensation does the 2013 Act provide?

Section 15 of the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013 provides Tk 2 lakh to the family where torture causes death, and Tk 25,000 to a surviving victim of torture, payable by the convicted offender.[1]

Can the family claim compensation from the State, not just the officers?

Yes. The High Court Division can award public-law compensation against the State under Article 102 for violation of fundamental rights, independently of any criminal conviction. In the Jihad negligence case it ordered Tk 20 lakh.[2] [11]

Where is a complaint under the 2013 Act filed?

With the Sessions Judge's court or a police officer not below the rank of Superintendent. The victim may ask for a judicial inquiry if police cannot investigate fairly.[1]

What if the police refuse to register the case?

File directly before the Sessions Judge under the Act, as the family did in the Jonny case, and record the refusal for use in any writ petition.[8]

Can someone other than the family file the complaint?

Yes. Sections 6 and 7 let a third party inform the court or file a complaint, and the court must take steps for the victim's safety.[1]

Is superior orders a defence for an officer?

No. Section 12 provides that war, threat of war, internal political instability, emergency and orders of a superior or public authority are no excuse.[1]

What must a magistrate do when a person dies in remand?

Under the Appellate Division's 2016 guidelines, order a medical board examination, with exhumation if needed, and take cognizance under section 15 of the 2013 Act if the death is found homicidal.[3]

How many convictions have there been under the Act?

One, in the Jonny case decided in September 2020, out of about 50 cases filed. The High Court Division largely upheld it on appeal in August 2025.[5]

How long does the trial take under the Act?

The Act requires investigation within 90 working days, with any extension decided by the court, and trial within 180 days, extendable by 30. In practice cases often take far longer.[1]

Has Bangladesh changed the law on custodial torture recently?

In July 2025 the government approved accession to OPCAT and a proposed CrPC amendment on 12-hour notice of arrest. The compensation provisions of the 2013 Act are unchanged.[7]