Threat to Human Rights is highest in Police Stations: CJI

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The death of a fruit stall owner, 47-year-old A Murugesan, allegedly as a result of a brutal thrashing by a special sub-inspector of Tamil Nadu police
Bennix and his father Jayaraj who died in custody last year in June in Thoothukudi.
An army man Resham Singh was brutally tortured while his mother and two sisters in Pilibhit, UP, were humiliated on May 3, drawing the Allahabad High Court’s ire.
On May 21, an 18-year-old vegetable vendor Faisal Hussain was allegedly beaten to death in Bangarmau police station in UP’s Unnao district for violation of Covid-19 directives.
Custodial deaths in police stations, even in jails, seem to be commonplace these days.

The NAL Event

“The threat to human rights and bodily integrity are the highest in police stations.
Custodial torture and other police atrocities are problems that still prevail in our society.
In spite of constitutional declarations and guarantees, the lack of effective legal representation at the police stations is a huge detriment to arrested/detained persons
“The decisions taken in these early hours will later determine the ability of the accused to defend himself.
Going by the recent reports even the privileged are not spared third-degree treatment,
“To keep police excesses in check, dissemination of information about the constitutional right to legal aid and availability of free legal aid services is necessary.
The installation of display boards and outdoor hoardings in every police station/prison is a step in this direction,”
he called upon NALSA to carry out nationwide sensitisation of police officers.
He said the concept of free legal aid to the needy has its roots in the freedom movement.
“Those days, the legal luminaries rendered pro-bono services to freedom fighters, who were targeted by the colonial rulers.
This spirit of service found reflection in the Constitution, with those very same legal luminaries serving as members of the Constituent Assembly.”
Stressing the need to work on access to justice for all, irrespective of their socio-economic status,
CJI Ramana said this is imperative to ensure that we remain a society governed by rule of law.
it is imperative for us to bridge the gap of accessibility to justice between the highly privileged and the most vulnerable.
project “Access to Justice” is an unending mission for the country so that it can dream of a future based on legal mobility, a future where equality is a reality.
“If, as an institution, the judiciary wants to garner the faith of the citizens, we have to make everyone feel assured that we exist for them.
For the longest time, the vulnerable population has lived outside the system of justice,”
Making it clear that accessing justice in India is not merely an aspirational goal, he said, “We need to work hand in hand with various wings of the government to make it a practical reality.”
Lengthy, expensive formal processes followed by courts dissuade the poor and the vulnerable.
The judiciary’s toughest challenge today is to break these barriers,

Union Home Minister Amit Shah

while speaking at the inauguration of the Centre of Excellence for Research and Analysis of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances of the National Forensic Sciences University in Ahmedabad on July 12,
said that the police in our country are accused of either “No Action” or “Extreme Action”.
Victims of crime shudder at the thought of having to visit a police station.
More so if one happens to be from a marginalised section of society.

Police not trained enough in human rights, reveal surveys

Crime records and survey reports show that violence by police has been reported across the nation,
that police personnel are not adequately trained in human rights, and that they have the tendency to inflict punishments outside the judicial process.
According to the latest Crime in India report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 70 people died in police custody in 2018.
Tamil Nadu recorded 12 of these deaths, the second-highest in the country after Gujarat, where 14 such deaths were reported.
Only 3 of these 70 deaths were categorised by the police as having occurred due to physical assault by police, while illness was registered as a cause of death in 32 of the 70 cases.
Seventeen of these deaths were attributed to suicide, seven to injuries sustained prior to police custody,
7 while escaping from custody,
1 to road accidents or journeys connected with investigation while the remaining three to other reasons.
In 2019, at least 117 deaths in police custody were reported to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
National Campaign Against Torture, a joint initiative by multiple non-governmental organisations, has reported deaths in police custody occur primarily as a result of torture.
Of the 125 deaths in police custody that the group recorded in 2019, 93 persons (or three in every four) died due to alleged torture or foul play; while 24 died in suspicious circumstances, with the police claiming they either committed suicide or died of illness or accident.
The report also said that the practice of torturing suspects in police custody to punish them, gather information, extract confessions, or demand bribes, was rampant.
Of the 125 deaths in police custody that the group recorded in 2019, 93 persons (or three in every four) died due to alleged torture or foul play; while 24 died in suspicious circumstances, with the police claiming they either committed suicide or died of illness or accident.
The report also said that the practice of torturing suspects in police custody to punish them, gather information, extract confessions, or demand bribes, was rampant.

Reply To Parliament

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the former Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy stated that 1,697 custodial deaths were registered between April 2019 and March 2020, of which 1,584 deaths were in judicial custody while the rest (113) were in police custody.
Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 400 custodial deaths followed by Madhya Pradesh (143).
This meant that about five custodial deaths took place every day in our country.
But on August 3, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai stated in the Lok Sabha that 348 custodial deaths and 1,189 cases of torture by police were reported across the country in the last three years.

Convictions of Policemen

While several policemen do get convicted, there are good reasons to believe that many go scot free — by manipulating records, intimidating complainants or political patronage.
It’s up to senior officers to ensure that prompt actions are initiated against policemen who resort to brutal torture.
When erring personnel are promptly punished, the message goes out loud and clear to other rogue policemen that the law will catch up with them.
In the case of custodial deaths, those guilty should be tried for murder.
In terms of police personnel being punished for alleged torture and extrajudicial killings, NCRB data for 2018 shows that even as 89 cases were registered against police personnel for human rights violations such as custodial killings and illegal detentions,
not a single one was convicted
Findings from the Status of Policing in India report, released last year by non-governmental organisations Common Cause and CSDS-Lokniti, showed that the police in India suffers from inadequacies and biases which might lead to such behaviour.
The report was based on a survey of close to 12,000 police personnel across 21 states.
The report showed that 12% police personnel never receive human rights training.
This varied among states and was as high as 38% in Bihar, 31% in Assam and 19% in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh.
Even among the personnel who received training in human rights, a majority said it was only at the time of joining the police force.
The survey also found a large number of police personnel justified the use of extrajudicial measures against criminals.
Three in every four police personnel surveyed felt it was justified for the police to be violent towards criminals, while one in five felt that killing dangerous criminals was better than a legal trial.
More educated police personnel, who are more likely to be officers, were found to be more likely to believe that it was alright for the police to be violent towards criminals.

The Solution other than Sansitization

Ratification of the ‘UN convention against torture’. This convention was signed by India in 1997 but never ratified. No official law has been passed by the legislation on Anti – torture or police reforms concerning custodial deaths
The various suggestions made by the Apex court in judgements like DK Basu v. State of Bengal must be enforced
Implementation of section 114B (evidence Act) mentioned in the law commission report 1985 which raises the notion of holding the officers accountable or with criminal culpability if anyone is found tortured or dead in their custody.
Also, the recommendations in the 117^th law commission report by the 16^th law commission recommends appropriate amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure which makes police officers responsible of assuring the safety of the accused in custody and making them aware of their rights while they remain in custody

The solution

Police personnel who remain spectators when people in custody are being tortured are also complicit in the crime.
Sub divisional police officers and superintendents of police should be held accountable for the impropriety committed by those under their supervision.