Custodial death one of the worst crimes in civilised society, says HC

Custodial death is one of the worst crimes in a civilised society and the police cannot torture citizens in an inhuman manner under the guise of power the Bombay High Court observed while asking the state government to pay Rs 15 lakh as compensation to the mother of a man allegedly killed in police custodyThe Aurangabad bench comprising Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase on Wednesday passed its judgment on a petition filed by one Sunita Kute who alleged that her 23yearold son Pradip had died after being tortured and assaulted by two policemen attached to the Solapur policeKute sought a compensation of Rs 40 lakh from the police and disciplinary action against the errant policemenAlso read Mumbai Diva dumping ground destroying mangroves say environmentalistsCustodial death is perhaps one of the worst crimes in a civilised society governed by the rule of law the bench saidThough the police have the power to control the actions of people and the crime it was not unfettered it saidUnder the guise of exercise of the said power they cannot torture or deal with a citizen in an inhuman manner the judgment saidThe state is the protector of the life of its citizens and if its employee undertakes torturous acts under the guise of power then it has to compensate such a citizen the court saidThe bench noted that in the present case the victim was a 23yearold man who had married just four months before his deathThe bench directed the Maharashtra government to pay a compensation of Rs 1529600 to the victims motherIt will be open to the state to recover the amount from respondent 4 and 5 the two errant policemen as they have been revealed to be the persons responsible for the death of Pradip the court saidAs per the plea the petitioners son Pradip who was a sugarcane harvester was stopped by the police when he was driving a tractor in November 2018The policemen started assaulting Pradip and others in the tractor for playing music the petitioner claimed adding that while the others managed to flee Pradip died on the spotA FIR was then lodged by the petitioner against the policemen who had assaulted PradipThe errant police officials however refuted the allegations and claimed that they did not have any motive to kill the victim who suffered from a brain disease and was feeling dizzy He was taken to a hospital where he was declared deadWe would like to say that there was no reason for the police to intercept the tractor driven by Pradip even if they were having some objection regarding the sound they could have told the same to Pradip in a dignified manner the court said in its judgmentThere was a violation of the fundamental rights of the deceased as there was no reason for interception and hence no reason to mete out atrocity on the victim the bench observedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever