Torture Inside Police Stations And Custodial Deaths Must End
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-11-12 06:14:26
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
The circumstances leading to custodial deaths are always suspicious and the same is true of the death of a 22-year-old man at Kasganj near Agra. The police have said that the man committed suicide in prison by hanging himself from a tap and the post-mortem report confirmed suicide by hanging. But pictures have emerged which show that the tap was just 3 feet high while the dead man was 5'6" in height. How is that possible and who in his or her right mind would believe that? It certainly leads one to believe that the man was hanged elsewhere and the scene was created (foolishly, though) for official records and public consumption.
Police all over India never follow due process when they arrest ordinary people as suspects in any case. Torture inside police stations is common and custodial deaths are frequent. Just a few months ago, a father-son duo had died in police custody in Tuticorin. In the Kasganj case, the arrested person was allegedly not produced before a magistrate and the victim's family has also alleged that there were signs of torture on the body. All this demands that there must be a judicial magistrate inquiry, as mandated by law, to find out what actually happened. This has to be done urgently as there is every chance that the local police will destroy evidence.
In January this year, the Supreme Court had frowned upon the delay in installing CCTV in all police stations and sought response all states and Union territories regarding the status of the same. That is the first and most urgent step to ensure justice to arrested person and prevent police highhandedness. But that is not the only thing and will not prevent torture and deaths as policemen will discover ways to evade it. If the police follow the law, due process and Supreme Court guidelines, there will be less torture in custody and those responsible for custodial deaths will be brought to book. These shameful incidents happen only when those whose duty it is to enforce the law take it upon themselves to break it. It is incomprehensible why the government is not initiating urgently needed police reforms which will go a long way in holding the police accountable and bring transparency in operations.
