Shafaqna Pakistan: India’s Chief Justice Nuthalapati Ramana said: “Custodial torture and other police atrocities are problems which still prevail in our society.” He added that the poor bore the brunt of police brutality, but “going by recent reports, even the privileged are not spared third-degree treatment”. “The lack of effective legal representation at police stations is a huge detriment to arrested or detained persons. The decisions taken in these early hours will later determine the ability of the accused to defend himself,” Ramana said.
The government said last week that 348 people died and 1,189 were tortured in police custody over the last three years. Ramana “sharply and unambiguously” underlinining that the police continue to use violence and torture is “extremely significant”, according to the Lawyer and Human Rights Activist Vrinda Grover.
She said the key to stopping these violations, in addition to providing a lawyer, was to prosecute and punish guilty police officers, which she said currently did not happen as the government refused to sanction criminal prosecution of the police. “Accountability through the judicial process and punishment of offending policemen alone will create a deterrent and make police stations a refuge for victims rather than sites of custodial violence,” she said.
Source: Shafaqna English
