E/CN.4/1995/34 page 64 339. The Special Rapporteur sent an additional letter on 10 October 1994 advising the Government he had continued to receive information according to which torture by the police, the paramilitary and the army was pervasive in each of the 25 States of India. A significant number of detained persons were said to have died as a result of police torture, most of them criminal suspects who had been tortured in order to extract confessions or other information. Torture was also said to have been employed in order to carry out "instant punishment" as a surrogate for judicially imposed punishment, which was commonly perceived by many police officers as cumbersome and ineffective. A further alleged motive for torture was to secure bribes. The information indicated a high incidence of cover-ups with regard to torture cases involving senior police, State officials, magistrates, and members of the medical profession. 340. Redress by torture victims or their families was reported to be difficult to obtain, as in most cases no decisive action would be taken by authorities to investigate or bring the perpetrators to justice. In many instances, alleged perpetrators were suspended or transferred, but few police officers were charged and even fewer were convicted for the torture of detainees in police custody. Magisterial inquiries, which are legally obligatory in all cases of custodial deaths, were said frequently not to be held, and when they were held their reports were said to be often inconclusive and rarely made public. The magistrates were said to have limited power of investigation and were forced to rely on evidence provided by the police. 341. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), established by presidential ordinance in September 1993, reportedly lacked independent investigative machinery, having to rely on investigative staff provided by the Government who operated under the supervision of the Director-General of Police. The Commission was said to have taken a number of constructive measures, such as issuing a directive to district magistrates and superintendents of police to report all cases of custodial deaths and rape involving the police to the Commission within 24 hours of their occurrence or of the case having come to their knowledge. The mandate of the Commission, however, was reportedly limited to asking for a report from the Government on alleged human rights violations and there was no obligation on the part of the Government to proceed with or to publish any of the Commission’s recommendations. The Government was said to be considering adoption of a legal amendment that would provide for judicial inquiries into all cases of deaths in custody. 342. Particular allegations were received with regard to police procedures in Bombay. It was alleged that a substantial number of persons were held in Bombay police stations without any record of their detention being made by the police. The practice of unrecorded police detentions was said to be conducive to torture and ill-treatment. Many detainees were reportedly held well beyond the 24-hour period within which a person must be brought before a magistrate, and many were never brought before a magistrate at all. Despite constitutional guarantees of the right to consult with a lawyer during interrogation, lawyers were said to be routinely denied access to persons held in police custody. Relatives of detainees were also reported to be denied such access. Such incommunicado detention was said to be conducive to torture. In addition, magistrates reportedly are able to remand a person to police custody for up to 15 days and thereafter to judicial custody for up