Little progress made in custody deaths’ probe

Murdered in Custody? Khwaja Yunus

Investigation In 15 Cases On, Cops Say Inquiries Fair

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Mumbai:The Bombay high court asked the CBI to investigate the on September 11 custodial death of Mumbai youth Altaf Shaikh (22), but there has been little progress so far on 17 other recent custodial deaths. What’s more, official records acknowledge only two of those died due to police torture.

Most prominent was the Khwaja Yunus case, Initially, Mumbai police claimed Yunus had fled from police custody while being transported to Aurangabad for investigation.

Later, facts emerged about police involvement in his death and the state CID arrested nine policemen in 2004, including three officers, Praful Bhonsale, Hemant Desai and Sachin Vaze. The case is currently being tried in court.

In the only other custodial death acknowledged so far, sub-inspector Pramod Pawar of the N M Joshi Marg police station was arrested by the crime branch on April 19, 2007. He was charged with the death in custody of an accountant Premnath Rao.

Rao, employed with a private organisation was arrested on April 5, 2006, for allegedly stealing Rs 5 lakh. Pawar was the investigating officer and Rao’s body was found hanging in a bathroom outside the Agripada lock-up on April 6. Police then claimed it was suicide but the HC ordered a second post-mortem, which reportedly revealed injury marks and bruises on his body and neck.

Then there are 15 cases that were classified as suicides or natural deaths. The Mumbai police has been given a clean chit in the other deaths by the crime branch—which probed all the cases.

But legal experts, who have dealt with both suspected criminals and officials, point out that it is difficult to believe “why should so many people, most of them otherwise hale and hearty, suddenly die of natural factors or opt to kill themselves when in police custody?’’

However, police insist the probes into custodial deaths are conducted impartially. “We always try for a fair and clean investigation,’’ a police official said. But he, too, admitted that there would always be some suspicion as long as police probed deaths in police custody.

Custodial deaths can be of three types: suicidal, homicidal or natural. Whenever someone commits suicide in a police station, an inquiry is initiated by the relevant crime branch unit.

The local police station has to then send a preliminary report to the National Human Rights Commission.

Telling Tales Of Human Rights
A report, “Torture in India 2009’’, by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), stated that 1,184 people were killed in police custody in India between April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2009, Maharashtra topping the chart with 192 deaths. The report stated that most died as a result of torture within the first 48 hours of being taken into custody.

The Times of India, October 21, 2009