India, Oct. 7 -- The Maharashtra home department has informed the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court that it has issued fresh guidelines for investigating custodial deaths. The guidelines prohibit investigating officers from closing custodial death cases without considering the conclusions drawn by executive magistrates.

The home department's affidavit, submitted to the high court on October 3, states that it issued a circular with the new guidelines on September 30. The circular states that the state's CID officers, who usually probe custodial deaths, shall not close cases without taking into consideration the conclusions drawn by executive magistrates in their reports under section 194(1) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita...