Mumbai: Observing that Maharashtra accounts for a large number of custodial deaths and that most of the victims belonged to the minority community, the Bombay High Court has said that it would take stern measures to curb such atrocities.

As a first step, a bench of justices V M Kanade and P D Kode yesterday clubbed all the petitions alleging custodial death and appointed senior lawyer Yug Choudhary as amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist in the matter.