Acknowledgements

This report was written by Naureen Shah, Leonard H. Sandler Fellow at Human Rights Watch, based on research by the author and Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher for the Asia Division. The report was edited by Meenakshi Ganguly and Elaine Pearson, deputy director of the Asia Division. It was reviewed by James Ross, legal and policy director, and Joseph Saunders, deputy program director. Andrea Cottom, senior associate for the Asia Division, and Pema Abrahams, associate for the Asia Division, provided administrative and technical assistance, and Grace Choi provided production assistance to the report.

Research was conducted with substantial assistance from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, the People’s Vigilance Committee for Human Rights, the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and field investigators in Karnataka associated with People’s Watch. We are very grateful to the many other local NGOs, activists and lawyers who generously assisted us. We also wish to thank the police experts and scholars, particularly those at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, for their invaluable insight on police practices.

Above all, we would like to express our gratitude to all the victims, witnesses and police who agreed to be interviewed for this report regarding their personal experiences.