custodial violence in india
The Truth about Custodial Violence in India.
JAI DUGGAR
We totally ignore many important topics of the society in our daily life but slowly this avoidance/ignorance turns in to acceptance and looks very normal. Lets take an example of the famous movies like Sacred Games, Dabbang, Simbba, Singham, Rowdy Rathore, etc and series Like all these movies and series. what was common in all these series and movies? Police Torture! According to a report, if a lead character performs any violent activity or any fake encounter usually viewers encourages that act. According to the point of view of an average bollywood viewer police is just not to maintain law and order, they think their work is to just punish and kill the villains.In today's blog, we are going to cover many important topics Like Prevention Of Torture Bill, in what stage it is in our parliament, second topic is, what are the rights available for an arrested person in India and lastly we will know about what steps Supreme court has taken in this matter. So lets start now.
After the death of George Floyd in US and the custodial death of Jeyraj and Fenix at Sathankulam. Police Station raised a lot of concerns about the matter. and again it has given air to have a new debate around police 3rd degree torture. The death of George Floyd in US resulted in heavy protest and as a result of protest Congress has decided to pass a police reform bill and along with this it is discussed to maintain a National database which will register all police misconducts. Will this bill turn into a law, time will tell us about this. But do you know same Anti Torture Bill was discussed in India also it was 10 years before, it is been discussed in parliament so many times but not passed yet. Globally it was discussed first time by United Nations in 1975. India is a member of UN, so if any law of UN has to be applied in India, then we have to make a law by the parliament. So making UN Convention Against Torture 1975 a law , a bill was presented Lok sabha in 2010 named Prevention Of Torture Bill 2010. so according to this bill if any public servant commits a torture then punishment has prescribed against him. This bill explains the word "Torture" very broadly and simply and says that if any public servant tortures any individual for deriving any information or his confession if he hurts that individual grievously or tortures his life, limb mentally or physically then all these things will be considered as torture and against this act there is a punishment of 10 years.
After being passed by Lok Sabha it comes to Rajya Sabha and for further consideration it passes the bill to Rajya Sabha Select Committee Suggestions. Committee provides some suggestions for the bill and says the points like the definition of torture should be expanded. secondly if any woman or child has been tortured then the punishment should be more strict and thirdly they suggested to setup an Independent Authority which can investigate all the activities and provide all the needed compensations to the victims. and after including all these suggestions this bill was presented repeated times in Rajya Sabha but till now this bill has to been passed by Rajya Sabha yet. In 2017 Law Commission said that they are seriously considering about the bill but before passing the bill there should be changes done in Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence act and Criminal Procedure Act seems like a tough work, shall I tell one more big thing. In 2019 there were 1700 Custodial Deaths. now lets know what are the major judgments given by Supreme Court against the police torture and violence and in the last judgment. we will get to know about the guidelines which every police officer has to follow while arresting someone first case is Rudul Shah Vs State of Bihar 1983 in this case petitioner Rudul Shah was kept illegally in jail for 14 years habeas corpus writ was filed and his immediate release was demanded. this case is important because in this case for the very first time Supreme Court realized that if by any state any individuals constitutional rights is been violated, then the individual will get compensation.
2nd case is Saheli vs Commissioner of Police 1989. in this case police along with zameendar misbehaves with the rented mother and his 9 year old child due to which the 9 year old child dies and Supreme Court compensated the mother by awarding 75000 Rs. this case is important because in this case Supreme Court gave option to Delhi administration to recover the amount by the police officer who is responsible for the incident 3rd case is Nilabati Behera Vs 1993 of Orissa in this case Suman Behera was arrested by police. and the very next day her body was found on railway track with multiple injuries in this case petitioner was awarded by a compensation of Rs 1lakh 55 thousand. so in last 2 cases we got to know that while awarding compensation supreme court doesn't follow any specific criteria according to the situation of the case the compensation is decided but in this case Supreme court said that it is a state's responsibility to give compensation not police officer's. Next case is Joginder singh vs State of Up 1994. in this case Supreme Court said that if any arrest is done without any justification then it will be an illegal act. Supreme court said that police officers has the power to arrest but just for using this power they cant arrest. there must be a reasonable justification for arresting someone and now we will discuss about the most important case of Custodial violence.
D.k. Basu vs State of West Bengal 1997. In this case Supreme court recognized custodial violence and police torture and said custodial violence is an attack on human dignity. in this case court said after having many recommendations and policies. still the cases of torture and deaths in police custody are increasing.. so in this case total 11 guidelines were given which every police officer has to follow while arresting someone. these guidelines and rights is available to every arrested person in the country. so now quickly we will look at the guidelines. So what are the guidelines which police officers has to follow while arresting someone. let us see.
1st is which ever police person is handling the interrogation or arrest they should clearly carry their name tag in which their name and designation must be seen clearly and police has to maintain a register of those officials who are handling the case or interrogation.
2nd is arrest memo if any police officer is arresting someone they has to maintain an arrest memo in which all the details related to arrest should be there like the signature of any witness person , time, date and place of arrest.
3rd guideline is that the arrested persons relative or friends must be informed about the arrest of that person and where he has been detained this also should be informed and they have to maintain an official diary in which all the records has to be mentioned like which officer is handling the case who has been informed, like this things should be mentioned in that diary.
next is Inspection Memo if the arrestee has any major or minor injuries then it should be noted down. Inspection memo would be signed by both officer and arrestee and arrestee will get a copy of inspection memo. After this comes Medical Examination after the arrest of the person he should be medically examined in every 48 hours. after this all these documents - medical report, inspection memo, arrest memo the copy all these documents will sent to the magistrate for their records and while at the time of interrogation arrested person can meet to his lawyer and there should be a Police control room in every district and state head quarter in which every information related to the arrest they would receive within 12 hours of the arrest and Police Control Room board will display all these information.
So Sheela barse Vs State of Maharashtra and D.K basu Vs State of West Bengal after the guidelines given on the basis of this cases. then also the cases of Custodial Voilence still rises. So, that's all for today....
THANK YOU.
0 Comments: