Fearing suicide, police sub inspectors lock people without clothes
Picture used for representational purpose. (Photo: PTI/File)
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) has asked the state police chief to ensure that no one is kept in lock up clad in just underwear. The State police has been asked to initiate action against officers who punish people by making them cover their body parts with newspapers.
Since suspects use shawls and dhoti and sometime even elastic in underwear to commit suicide in police custody, many sub inspectors insist that people in lock ups shouldn’t be given clothes.
The commission said the police should make efforts to thwart suicides instead of resorting to such inhuman measures. The commission had made this observation while considering a complaint filed by C Joseph of Amboori.
Welcoming the decision, ADGP Shanker Reddy said that top brass of police had always insisted on producing criminals in court at the earliest to avoid suicides in custody.
“Even with CCTV cameras, cases of suicides in custody cannot be prevented without human intervention. It is a human rights violation to even ask a person to remove his shirt or deny medicines like insulin shot to sick convicts. The person in police custody should be made safe by providing sentries. Unfortunately stations are short staffed even to look after their daily chores,” Reddy said.
“It is important not to give a glass bottle or tumbler to a criminal for drinking water. He can even use it to kill himself,” he added.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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