Death in police custody: In 16 out of 18 cases in Mumbai in last six years, no custodial torture found

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Vijay Kumar Choubey said, “The SOP is clear when it comes to people who have health issues. However, we will be re-emphasising the need to take suspects who complain of health issues directly to the hospital instead of the police station.”

In 18 cases of “death in police custody” in Mumbai in the past six years, the Crime Branch concluded in eight cases that the person died of illness or injuries sustained when the accused was beaten up by people. In another eight cases, the accused committed suicide in prison. No custodial torture was found in these 16 cases and the police teams which held the deceased were given a clean chit.

In two cases, it was found that the person was tortured in police custody — one of which was investigated by the CBI — and FIRs were registered against the police personnel. The figures are based on Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) documents, media reports and investigation details accessed by The Indian Express.

Recently, five policemen from the Mumbai Police were suspended after 26-year-old Vijay Singh died at the police station, where he was taken for questioning after an argument with a couple in Wadala (East) on October 27. Several people — from activists to policemen and MSHRC officials — that The Indian Express spoke to said police personnel need to be trained to strictly adhere to procedures like taking injured suspects to the hospital first and that an independent body like the SHRC or a court-appointed committee should investigate these cases instead of fellow officers. A need was also felt to separate “custodial torture” from “death due to natural causes” of an accused in police custody.

In three of the 18 cases, an FIR was registered “against members of the public” who had beaten up the person for allegedly committing a crime.

In at least two cases, the police, instead of taking the victim to the hospital, took the accused to the police station that eventually resulted in the person’s death. Officers said departmental action was initiated against the officers concerned in at least one of the cases for not following procedure. However, no details were provided about what action was taken.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Vijay Kumar Choubey said, “The SOP is clear when it comes to people who have health issues. However, we will be re-emphasising the need to take suspects who complain of health issues directly to the hospital instead of the police station.”

Prima facie, this was not followed in the case of Vijay Singh, who was not taken to the hospital after complaining of chest pain, resulting in the suspension of five officers from Wadala TT police station.

In eight cases of suicide in police custody, no action was recommended against the police as no evidence of custodial torture was found, an officer said. In the case of suicide at the Bandra lock-up the person was unhappy that his family was not coming to meet him. All these cases were due to personal reasons,” the officer claimed.

In eight cases where the person died at the hospital, the officers concerned were given a clean chit. However, in some cases like the one of Sachin Jaiswar, the families are not buying the police finding. Jaiswar (17), who was picked up by the Dharavi police on July 13 on suspicion of mobile theft and released the same day after 22 hours, died of pneumonia on July 21.

The family has alleged that even though he died of pneumonia, it was due to being locked up the entire day without food and due to police torture. His brother Sunil said, “How is it that when he was arrested he had no illness, but later died of it? Obviously, the police is responsible.”

An officer, however, said that Jaiswar had an open would on the foot and it was raining that day, so he may have contracted the illness. Jaiswar’s body is still lying in the JJ hospital as his family has refused to conduct the last rites and approached the High Court against the clean chit by the Crime Branch.

On investigations conducted by the Crime Branch, Dolphy D’Souza, convener of Police Reforms Watch, said, “There is already a negative perception of the police when it comes to investigating custodial torture. In order to ensure that people see it to be an impartial investigation, it is necessary that either the SHRC should be armed to investigate such cases or a court-monitoring committee within a time frame.”

A senior officer, however, said that norms for custodial death investigation are so stringent that no officer would give his colleague a clean chit if there is evidence of torture as most of these cases end up in High Court.

“There was a time when cops would get carried away during interrogation and use torture. Now most cops would rather let a case go undetected than use such means,” a police inspector said.

A section of police officers believe they need to use “some amount of physical force to breakdown” hardened history-sheeters who would otherwise not give any information.

D’Souza, however, said that world over there has been a change in the method of investigation with the use of technology and it was high time officers unlearn what was done in the past and use modern methods. An MSHRC official added that the police should comply with the Supreme Court order of installing CCTV cameras in all rooms if they want people to trust them.

All, however, emphasised the need to separate “custodial torture” from “death due to illness” and “suicide in police custody”, which are all currently clubbed as “death in police custody”. Incidentally, the NCRB data this year has divided the separate categories in the data released for 2017.

For latest coverage on Haryana and Maharashtra Elections, log on to IndianExpress.com. We bring you the fastest assembly election 2019 updates from each constituency in both the states.

Source: Read Full Article