SC for stern measures to deal with custody deaths

The Supreme Court has ruled that custody deaths should be dealt with in a "stern" manner otherwise such incidents would destroy the very foundation of the criminal justice system leading to anarchy and barbarism. "Police excesses and the maltreatment of detainees/undertrial prisoners or suspects tarnishes the image of any civilised nation and encourages the men in `Khaki' to consider themselves to be above the law and sometimes even to become law unto themselves. "Unless stern measures are taken to check the malady of the very fence eating the crops, the foundations of the criminal justice delivery system would be shaken and the civilisation itself would risk the consequence of heading, towards total decay resulting in anarchy and authoritarianism reminiscent of barbarism," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Ashok Kumar Ganguly observed. The apex court passed the observation while dealing with the plea for compensation filed by Dalbir Singh an agriculturist whose 17-year old son was allegedly killed in police custody by the Noida officials. According to Dalbir Singh instead of booking the officials under Section 302 IPC (murder) the Sector 20 Noida police officials had booked a case of 306 (suicide) on the plea that the victim had committed suicide on September 1, 2006. PTI

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