Custodial death case: Retd police inspector gets 7 years RI

Posted Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 21:14
Updated Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 23:48

New Delhi: A retired Delhi Police inspector was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) by a city court for ruthlessly beating a person in police custody, to death.

"It was only accused H P Singh who caused fatal injuries to the deceased and it could be presumed from a person of ordinary prudence like accused Singh that he knew about such injuries are likely to cause death of a person," said Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar.

Coming down heavily on the coduct of Singh as a public officer, the court said he not only had no expiation but also tried to implicate the landlords of the deceased. Such conduct on the part of a public officer is highly condemnable.

The quantum of punishment in cases involving public officers should be commensurate with the status of the offender, by imposing greater penalty on a person from whom higher standards were expected, it observed while sentencing 61-year-old Singh.

Singh was convicted under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC.

The court also imposed on him a fine of Rs one lakh, out of which Rs 50,000 shall to be given to the successors of victim Subhash Chand.

The four accused landlords of the victim were also convicted for causing hurt to Chand.

Chand had died on February 3, 1990, owing to spinal fracture after Singh beat him up on January 23 at Geeta Colony Police Station where he had gone to lodge an FIR against his landlords following a dispute.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/retd-cop-gets-ri-in-custodial-death-case/32011-3.html
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Innocent man suffers 11 yrs in jail

PUNE: On Saturday, 45-year old Armogam Munnaswami Kounder walked out of Pune's Yerawada central jail as a free man after spending 11 years in prison on charges of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. The irony of this momentous day in his life was that he had always been innocent but was wrongly framed by the police.

Kounder was released from the Yerawada prison on the directives of the Bombay High Court which took cognisance of a suicide note left by police inspector Iqbal Bargir in 2000 who said that Kounder was not guilty of the crime he was charged with.

The court order said that Kounder, who at the time of his arrest in 1995 was employed as an illiterate sweeper with the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation, was suspected to have been wrongly implicated in the crime.

"I feel extremely angry about what has happened; but bygones are bygones. Nothing can be done about the past," he told TOI.

Throughout Saturday Kounder roamed the streets of Pune and was at a complete loss. He then took the help of social worker and advocate Asim Sarode to take a train to Vellore in Tamil Nadu to try and reunite with his wife and son in village Tirupathur.

During the last 11 years, Kounder had lost all contact with his family, who he said worked as casual labourers.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2181224.cms

List of NGOs and Individuals working for legal rights in India

NGOs
Human Rights Law Network
Combat Law - The Human Rights Magazine
Aids Awareness Group (AAG), New Delhi
Kamla Jagriti Manch, New Delhi
Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), New Delhi
India Center for Human Rights and Law, Mumbai
Manavata Abhiyan, Jamroodpur - free legal aid to poor thru lawyers
India Vision Foundation - vocational programmes in 49 jails in India
Society for the Protection of Detainees’ and Prisoners’ Rights

Individuals
Kiran Bedi
M K Gandhi
Milind Desai
Special Judge Sunil Gaur, New Delhi
Asim Saroda (lawyer), Pune

Incarceration of undertrials

With the enactment of Section 436-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in June 2006, incarceration of undertrials should stop in Indian jails.

Amended CrPC says:
- Undertrials who have been detained for more than half the prescribed period of imprisonment be released, excluding those accused for offence that merits death penalty.
- Bail can be given on execution of a bond if accused has no surety.
- While arresting a person police has to inform a friend or relative about where the accused is being held.

Some facts:
There are 1,305 prisons in India with an authorised inmate capacity of 2,14,241.
73% inmates across the country are undertrials.
Total prison population in West Bengal is 17,910 of which 13,919 are undertrials.
Total prison population in Maharashtra is 23,863 of which 15,712 are undertrials.