Increasing custodial deaths

Increasing Custodial Deaths


Your Editorial on the topic is timely and appropriate. The figures furnished by the state of Punjab on custodial deaths indicate a sharp increase from 2 in 2004 to 80 in 2006 and 63 in 2007.. The police and the state government have ignored the previous directives of the Supreme Court and they go on doing what they like with impunity. Men in uniform are meant to uphold the rule of law and not break it. Though they have the power to detain suspects and interrogate them in custody, they are not allowed to use third degree methods to extract confessions or torture them in an inhuman manner. There is no check on police behaviour There could be tremendous pressure on the police from influential persons and government agencies to get confessions, making it difficult for the lower rung of policemen to follow the rules. In the current nationl scenario, corruption at every level cannot be ruled out. Despite stringent directions from the High Courts and Supreme Court, no action seems to have been taken against the erring men in uniform. It is difficult in the nature of things to fix responsibility on the policemen on excesses. Passage of years with inaction helps the system to continue without any regard to civility and court directives. The common man is afraid of a policestation, its image as a station to redress problems or a 'Help Centre' has not emerged despite passage of 6 decades of independent India. This sorry state of custodial deaths is not confined to Punjab but happens in all the states in India, though with varying degree.
Now that the case has come before the Supreme court, it is for the state to punish all those guilty policemen who exceeded their brief and set standards and limits to interrogation procedure. The action taken must be widely published in the media to instill people's faith in the ongoing system.
Failure must be rewarded with peremptory and exemplary punishment. No civilised society can tolerate such inhuman excesses by the men in uniform.



Dr A.R.K.Pillai
Feb 11 09