Torture In Police

3.1 PRACTISE OF TORTURE IN POLICE CUSTODY

Torture and violence have been identified with the police in India with police in India ever since the Vedic age (2000 to 1400 BC). The ordeals of fire, water and single combat were used. In the epic period (1400 to 800 BC) torture was practised on prisoners by the police. Kautilya’s Arthasastra speaks about various kinds of torture such as burning of limbs, tearing by wild animals, trampling to death by elephants and bulls, cutting of limbs and mutilation, etc. Manu, the law giver of this age emphasised the necessity of torture to protect the society from the hard criminals.
The record of the police department throughout India has not been such a wonderful one. The prison administration in India

State of Haryana , the Apex Court came out heavily on the police over a custodial death. In this case the deceased was arrested on a complaint of theft of a buffalo. He died in police custody due to severe beating and torture and later his body was thrown under a bus to make it appear that he died in an accident. Justices K.J. Reddy and N.P. Singh rejected the police version and held that once it was established that the police had taken some one into custody “then it is their responsibility to show as to how the deceased went out of their custody”. Each of the accused was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment of 5 years. This puts an end to the police stories of escape and unexplained disappearance of citizens arrested by them formally and informally.

In Sadasivan Mohan Chandran v. State of Kerala , is another case of custodial death. In this case the accused police officials kicked the deceased and dashed his head against the wall three or four times causing injuries on the head which resulted in his death. Each of them was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment of 5 years under section 304, Indian Penal Code.
In a number of cases the police claimed that the accused committed suicide in police detention. However, the mystery over as to what had led them to take the extreme act and how they commit suicide with strange objects like shoe laces, blankets, jeans, etc are never answered. How the victims had access to the means for committing suicide like

Unlike custodial deaths, the police are not mandatorily required to report cases of torture which do not result in deaths to the NHRC. Yet, the NHRC recorded a number of cases of police torture not resulting in deaths. In the last three years, 2,044 cases of police torture were registered to the NHRC. These included 574 cases in 2008-2009, 615 cases in 2009-2010 and 855 cases in 2010-2011.110 The statistics has gone up every year. However, these cases are only a fraction. Majority of the cases go unreported.
1. Torture to extract confessions
Torture of the victims during interrogation is common across India. There is no scientific method of investigation. Torture remained integral to investigation to obtain confessions from suspects. Terror suspects are at increased risks of torture given the immense pressure on the police to solve the crimes.

2. Torture resulting from a failure to pay bribes
Unable to pay bribes demanded by the police has also regularly resulted in torture by the police. During 2010, ACHR documented a number of such