Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) questioning multiple incidents of the police parading accused in handcuffs, in contravention of Supreme Court guidelines, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday directed the state police to ensure proper compliance with the directions laid down by the apex court in the case of DK Basu versus State of West Bengal on how police should deal with an arrestee.
The directions came from the division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav, which also ordered the state government to issue a circular within a week for all police personnel, so that they are aware on how they should behave and deal with arrested-accused.
Notably, the PIL filed in July 2018 had pointed out 10 separate incidents from the state whereby the accused were tied with rope, paraded, made to do sit-ups, crawl on the ground and seek public apology. The petitioner had submitted to the court that the action of police personnel involved in all the 10 cases was in contravention of the apex court guidelines and violates the human rights of the arrested-accused. The incidents were reported from Vadodara, Rajkot, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, and Bhavnagar.
The court, after issuing the directions, disposed of the matter on Tuesday after the state government filed a detailed affidavit assuring the court that it has initiated proceedings against police personnel involved in all the 10 incidents mentioned in the PIL. The affidavit submitted by additional director general of police (law and order) Sanjay Srivastava also provides that all the 10 incidents are being probed by high-ranking officials and also updated the court about the latest status of the probes in all the 10 cases.
The affidavit also provides that the director general of police has proposed actions to take care of the problem. These includes issuing an exhaustive circular mandating the guidelines issued by the apex court at the stage of arrest and also during investigation; training module on directions issued by Supreme Court for newly-recruited armed and unarmed police officers; and narrating the apex court guidelines to police personnel of all concerned police stations during the first week of every quarter while conducting the roll call.
Notably, the PIL filed in July 2018 had pointed out 10 separate incidents from the state whereby the accused were tied with rope, paraded, made to do sit-ups, crawl on the ground and seek public apology. The incidents were reported from Vadodara, Rajkot, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, and Bhavnagar.