“You were here to protect us, but now who will protect us from you”?
The working of Indian police has been always in news, because of the wrong reasons and if we ask the general public their opinion regarding the police department, they generally feel afraid on seeing the police personnel around them. Though this image of police has changed significantly in this corona epidemic as the police department is doing exceptionally well for the society and they have been working day and night. In the current context, the custodial death of father and son duo in Tamil Nadu which shocked the entire country, it’s imperative to assume that there is still a long road to travel. A few days ago, Jayraj and his son died in police custody, there was some outrage in our country but the same people who were criticizing and raising their voices against the racism and police brutality in the USA didn’t pay heed to this unfortunate murder of father-son duo. On 18th June Jayraj made some critical remarks against the police department and the next day an auto driver informed the police regarding the same which ultimately resulted in the arrest of Jayraj on 19th June. His son also went to the police station where he argued with the police officers and both of them were allegedly assaulted and beaten throughout the night. The next day they were taken to the hospital where family members were told to bring dark-colored under-garments because of the excessive bleeding.
After the treatment, they were taken to the magistrate as it is mandatory to produce the arrested person in front of a magistrate within the 24 hours of arrest. The magistrate from the second floor of his residence, told police officers to take both father and son in police custody without going through their medical reports. On 22nd June both of them died in police custody. After a nationwide agitation, the state government transferred this case to CBI and 6 policemen have been booked on the murder charges till now. The magistrate appointed by the Madras High court for the probe categorically mentioned in his report that the concerned police officers destroyed the shreds of evidence, didn’t cooperate in the investigation and even tried to threaten the investigating team.
The state government announced a compensation of 20 lakhs to the family of Jayraj. As a nation, we have failed in giving the required attention to these custodial deaths. As per the NCRB data, 100 people died in the police custody out of which 58 people were on not even remand. This plays an important role in why people are afraid to go to the police. During some interviews, many police officers claimed to get a confession in crimes like house trespass and theft and police being under tremendous pressure to solve the case use the third degree to extract the confession.
It is worth mentioning here that in its report Human Rights Watch stated “bound by brotherhood India’s failure to end killings in police custody”. In their research, they have studied the 17 police custody deaths form 2009-15 by talking to the families, police department, witnesses, and other experts where it was found that to get confession police department used 3rd-degree interrogation techniques which is against the ethics of working of the police. The research further states that in those cases the proper Modus Operandi like medical examination and informing the parents about the arrest wasn’t followed by the police department.
Guidelines by Supreme Court in D.K. Basu case:
In the above mentioned case an NGO sent a letter in the form of writ petition regarding the matter of custodial deaths in the state of West Bengal in the year of 1997 after the state of West Bengal submitted the written statement. With a full-fledged inquiry, Supreme Court established some guidelines for arresting a person which haven’t been implemented yet and this speaks volumes in failure of government in ensuring proper functioning of the police while making an arrest.
The main guidelines prescribed by the court were as follows. 1. Any arrested person should have right to meet a lawyer of his choice. 2. He should get medically examined for every 48hrs. 3. The close relatives of the arrested person should be informed regarding the arrest within a reasonable time. 4. An entry should be made in the police diary regarding the arrest of the person. It is further prescribed by the honorable court that the police officer making the arrest shall have a clear identification of his name and designation even the time place of the custody shall be notified to the relatives of the arrested person.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
In the year of 1976, ICCPR came into the force intending to ensure the protection of civil and political rights. It recognizes the inherent dignity of each individual and undertakes the responsibility to promote conditions so that any individual without being discriminated against enjoys civil and political rights. 74 countries are a signatory of this treaty. India is a signatory to the same.
Major amendments in CRPC regarding arrest provisions:
In the year of 2009, the then government led by the Manmohan Singh came up with an important amendment of section 41(a) of CRPC which says that in case a police officer wants to arrest someone he is required to tell that he has some credible and reasonable suspension of the cognizable offense done by him and the police officer is required to send a notice and if the accused has complied with the notice he isn’t required to get arrested. The amendment further stated in section 41(B) any police making the arrest should provide the visible representation about his name and designation with the attached memorandum signed by either family members or any other respected person of the locality.
According to section 41(C), it is mandatory that the person arrested shall be listed in the police control room established by the state government. While the most important provision in the amendment in section 55 of the CRPC which says it shall be the duty of police officer under whose custody a person is arrested to ensure the safety and health of the person reasonably.
Suggestions and concluding remarks:
Thus, it is the high time for our government to ensure the police reforms in our country so that people get more aware of the rights available to them. The police need to come out of that confession extraction ideology where they think that torturing an accused is their fundamental right, it is explicitly mentioned in the Indian Evidence Act that confession made in police custody isn’t admissible in the court of law yet police officers use third-degree touchier in police custody. The amendment in the police governing act is necessary to change the modus operandi of the police workers. A different kind of training can be also used for new generation officers where they are supposed to work with civilians more cooperatively.
It is believed that our judicial system will take this case seriously and will ensure an exemplary punishment so that it can work as a deterrent in the future, while the general public is supposed to condemn everything that is against the civil rights and humanity; only raising slogans like black life matters won’t help; equal importance must be given to indigenous lives too.
Abhyudaya Raj Mishra
BBA LLB Hons.
HPNLU Shimla