Bengaluru police has the worst human rights record in state, unlawful detention on raise

BENGALURU: If you were to assess the city police by their tweets and Facebook posts, it would appear they are a friendly, helpful lot. They are, to some extent. But it also happens that Bengaluru police has the worst human rights record in the state, at least in terms of unlawful detentions.

Of the 321 complaints of illegal detentions filed with the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission in the past three years, 275, or 85%, were against the city police, according to data submitted by the panel to the state government.

The number of complaints has sharply increased this year ­ until May 27, the panel received 42 complaints of illegal detention against Bengaluru police, compared with 49 in all of 2014.

While the police are within their rights to detain citizens on suspicion, to hold them beyond 24 hours without obtaining magisterial sanction for further custody is illegal. Also, while interrogations should ideally be on-camera and confessions cannot be extracted through torture or threat, various accounts show that may not be the case.

“Physical torture in police stations happens more in Bengaluru," said KSHRC Inspector General of Police N Shivakumar, responsible for all investigations into complaints of human rights abuses received by the state panel. The commission, too, has a pitiable track record, it hasn't completed investigations into even a single complaint filed with it in the past three years.

Mathews Philip, executive director of South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, wondered why few police stations in the city have built-in cameras, which is mandatory. “If the police make an arrest, they have to produce the accused before a magistrate within 24 hours. This is not happening," he said.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner MN Reddi, in defence of his force, has an explanation to why the numbers are stacked against his officers: “Bengaluru has one crore population and 25% of the state's crimes take place in Bengaluru.”

The city police have “zero tolerance" to wrongful detentions, he said.“Today, we no longer use the third-degree methods on accused and investigations happen in a systematical way. Frequency of torture has come down in recent years,” Reddi said.

Meera C Saksena, acting chairperson of the Karnataka Human Rights Commission, said kin of a person held by the police should take video or voice recordings of talks between the police and the detained person.