E/CN.4/1995/34 page 61 (a) Masri Ali Maher was arrested at Vaci utca on 30 December 1992 and allegedly severely beaten by several officers at the police station. He was then taken to another room where other detainees were held and told to take his clothes off. He was ridiculed and then told to squat, whereupon the officers kicked him repeatedly and made him fall on his back. As a result of the beatings, he allegedly sustained a fracture of the metacarpal bone in his right hand as well as contusions on his back and chest; (b) Ussama Khaled Awad was arrested on 31 December 1992 at Vaci utca. At the police station he was allegedly threatened with a pistol and severely beaten by four officers for an hour, after which he was released. He was said to have received medical treatment at a hospital for contusions on his chest, right thigh and right forearm. India Information transmitted to the Government and replies received thereon 322. By letter dated 28 June 1994 the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received reports alleging that custodial torture was practised by the police in many regions of India. The reports suggested that torture was primarily employed to extract confessions or other information from criminal suspects. In some cases, police officials were said to practise torture as an extra-legal method of inflicting punishment. A substantial number of incidents of torture allegedly ended with the death of the victim. 323. The reports also indicated that police officials had employed a wide variety of torture techniques, including prolonged and repeated beatings, often with canes and leather straps; electric shock, applied to the victim’s genitals, head, ears and legs; deprivation of food and water; tying the victim’s hands behind the back and suspending the victim from the ceiling by the legs; the stretching of limbs, including pulling the victim’s legs far apart so as to cause pelvic injury; and exposing the victim while naked to extreme heat or cold. 324. The cases summarized in the following paragraphs were transmitted to the Government. On 23 November 1994 the Government replied to some of these cases and those responses are summarized below following the corresponding allegation. 325. Sherpal, a resident of Rohina Singhpur village, Akrabad district, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, his wife Kamlesh, and his 80-year-old father Ram Chander were arrested by police on 4 February 1994 and beaten. Kamlesh was released on the same day, while Ram Chander allegedly was subjected to three weeks of interrogation accompanied by repeated beatings. When Kamlesh returned to the police station on 1 March to obtain the release of Sherpal, she observed that he had suffered severe head injuries. She was told that he would appear in court, but police at Avagarh subsequently told Kamlesh that her husband had escaped, although such escape seemed improbable considering the extent of his injuries. He was said to have been "disappeared". 326. On 23 November 1994 the Government replied that following the filing of a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court by Ram Chander alleging torture of