The number of cases of police excesses registered last year with the Bihar Human Rights Commission went up by 213 from 2013, rendering sensitisation programmes run by the panel ineffective.

Since February 2014, the commission has organised several programmes in different districts, including Patna and Nalanda to sensitise police officers in their interaction with accused and victims. The commission decided to organise the sessions because of a rise in police-atrocity cases over the years.

In 2014, of 5,642 complaints registered with the commission, 2,135 were lodged against police officers. In the past seven years, this was the maximum that the commission had received. The previous year, 1,922 cases were reported against police officers.

Former director-general of police and Bihar Human Rights Commission member Neel Mani said on Wednesday: “It is true that in some instances, the police exhibit insensitivity while handling a case. It can be related to interrogation of the accused or custodial and juvenile laws. But if you go through the nature of complaints lodged with us, most of them are found to be routine complaints such as delay in investigation and wrongful detention.”

Still, the jump in such cases since 2008 has been quite steep. In 2008, only 34 such complaints of human rights violation were registered against the police. In 2009, the figure rose to 820 and then kept on soaring — 1,137 in 2010, 1,394 in 2011 and 1,645 in 2012.

Neel Mani, however, admitted that many a time cases of police atrocities went unreported and sometimes, the commission took suo motu notice of several cases. In such cases, the commission has initiated action against the offenders.