Custodial violence stays one of many gravest affronts to the rule of legislation. The State is vested with coercive powers to analyze crime. Nonetheless, such powers can by no means lengthen to infliction of torture, the Madurai Bench of the Madras Excessive Court docket has mentioned.
Justice L. Victoria Gowri mentioned the constitutional promise below Article 21 didn’t finish on the gates of a police station. Each individual, regardless of the allegations in opposition to him, retained his basic proper to life, dignity and bodily integrity.
The court docket directed the CB-CID to conclude as expeditiously as attainable the investigation into the custodial demise of Scheduled Caste youth R. Akash Delison of Manamadurai in Sivaganga district.
The court docket appreciated Manamadurai Judicial Justice of the Peace M. Afzal Fathima, whose remand proceedings ensured preservation of a vital contemporaneous account that now fashioned a part of the investigative report. Judicial sensitivity on the remand stage typically grew to become the simplest institutional safeguard in opposition to abuse of custodial energy, the court docket mentioned.
It mentioned the remand report revealed that as an alternative of mechanically authorising judicial custody, the JM visited Authorities Sivaganga Medical Faculty Hospital, recognized the accused via the obligation physician, interacted with him, seen the in depth harm to his proper leg, elicited from him the circumstances resulting in the harm and recorded the allegations made by him relating to custodial torture and ill-treatment.
The JM additional recorded the reason provided by the accused relating to the scratches discovered on his physique and famous the criticism of torture made in opposition to police personnel, the court docket mentioned.
The court docket mentioned the remand continuing was not a mere administrative formality. The remand court docket was typically the primary constitutional safeguard obtainable to a citizen after arrest. The obligation of the remand Justice of the Peace prolonged past analyzing the papers produced by the investigating company and included a significant interplay with the accused in order to establish whether or not ensures below Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Structure had been noticed.
The Investigating Officer ought to full the investigation as expeditiously as attainable and file the ultimate report earlier than the jurisdictional court docket in accordance with legislation, the court docket mentioned whereas disposing of the petition filed by A. Rajeshkannan, the daddy of the deceased, who had sought a course to the State to register a legal case for the homicide arising out of the alleged custodial torture, below the related provisions of the BNS, together with the related provisions of the SC/ST Act.
Revealed – June 10, 2026 10:14 pm IST
