CUSTODIAL DEATHS IN INDIAN JAILS
The Author of this blog is Mr. Keshav Sethi, student, Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida
Every
society is controlled by laws and regulation to circulate the order and
civilization among the society but what if the enforcers of law are themselves
responsible for disrupting balance in the society. Our country India is a population of billions
of people and it is hard to maintain the peace in the society and it is natural
that something is bound to go off the track and we call that a human error but
when that human error is responsible for taking someone life then there is a
serious need to look where it all went wrong. Custodial violence is very common
in India and is practiced in almost every state whether we should accept that
or not. And the only reason it happens is because the police officer as their
tendency to fast tract solving of case at earliest sometimes tends to go over
the edge and with the power in their hand they forget that there is a human
that is being tortured to an extend which is not humanly in nature.
In the recent times, custodial violence is emerging
at a very rapid rate. It is now time to stop the spread of these practices
because we have acts that describe the level of punishment that he/she
deserved.
The
question arises what actually is custodial violence and how does it impact the
very basic fundamentals of our constitution.
Custodial
violence is the illegal forced used by a police authority or a jail authority
on the convict which turned out to be very brutal and senseless in another
words, it is the ill treatment that is given to a convict which leads to an
impact on their psychological and physiological health. The system in the
custody is more harsh and inhuman than it seems to the rest of the world. There
is no way to understand why this system of custodial violence still exists in
our society. It is sad fact that even
though we are moving towards modern times but our methods of treating convicts
are still ancient.
How custodial violence
does damages to the basic fundamental of our Constitution[1]?
Article 20[2]:
Protection in respect of conviction for
offences
1. No
person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of the law in
force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be
subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under
the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence;
2. No
person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once;
3. No
person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against
himself.
This
article is considered to be judicious, fair-minded and rational in the nature. This
is also considered as no human being should be deprived of life and the private
freedom except according to the rule and regulation of the law of the time
being in force.
Article 21[3]: Protection of life and personal liberty No
person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to
procedure established by law.
Article
32[4]:
This is also one of the important as well as the backbone of the Indian constitution,
this article have made it somewhat possible for the victims to be head fast and
less effective SC even consider a mere letter stating the facts of the offence
and violation of the rights of the victims as the write petition this ways the
pain and the longer paper work which is tiring and time consuming is reduced
and the matter are given grave and more importance in cases where there is violation.
Christen community welfare council vs. state of Maharashtra (1994)[5]
On
26 August, 1994 In this case the person was arrested and died in the police
custody and the wife of the deceased was also locked down in the lock up room
of the police station and was molested by the police officer and was informed
about the death of her husband, after the above incident she was then
represented by the christen community welfare council.
The judgment given by the Supreme Court was that all the ten police officer who
were involved in the incident was liable for the punishment under IPC U/s. 302,
343, 354 and direct the state government to pay compensation to the wife of the
diseased The state government after the above said case directed guidelines
which had to be followed:
- It was instructed to
the police officers after arresting and before detainee is taken to the
magistrate he should be medically examined.
- Detailed of his /her
medical information.
- Details of his / her
medical report in station diary of
police station and shall be given the same to the magistrate
- At the time of
arrest the person should be medically examined should if he is carrying
any major and minor injuries which should be recorder in the ‘inspection
memos'
- The female arrestee
shall not be arrested after the sun rest and before the sun rise and if
arrest is necessity, it should be done by the female constable.
D.K Basu v. state of west
Bengal (1997)[6]
Under
this case the chief justice of India had written letter informing about the
lock up custodial death and Supreme Court consider the letter as the petition.
- The court observe
despite the several rules and regulation and laws aimed at providing
safeguard there have been several instances of torture still prevalent in
society.
- The court cited the
existence of custodial death and regarded it to be one of the worst crimes
in civilized society governed by the rule of law.
- The police officer
carrying out the arrest and handling the interrogation should make it clear
and visible identification his name tags with the designations and the
particulars as to who are handling the interrogation.
- The police officer who
is carrying the arrest should prepare a memo and which shall be attested
by witness of the family or any member of the locality.
- The place of arrest,
time and station where arrestee is must be notified to the family, relative.
- The persons arrested
must be given the information about his arrest.
- There must have made
an entry in the case diary at the police station regarding the name of the
person who has been informed about the arrest.
- The arrestee should
be examined while making arrest medically his body parts for any minor or
major injury.
- Copies of all the
above said and other should be attached and send to the magistrate for his
record.
- The arrestee may be
permitted to meet his lawyer during the interrogation or throughout the
interrogation.
Conculsion
[1] https://www.india.gov.in/sites/upload_files/npi/files/coi_part_full.pdf
[2] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/655638/
[3] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1199182/
[4] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/981147/
[5] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/432679/
[6] http://defensewiki.ibj.org/images/b/b6/Basu#:~:text=On%20December%2018%2C%201996%20in,The%20requirements%20read%20as%20follows.
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