INDIA: Police term custodial death of woman as suicide

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information about a woman, Ms. Victoria Dayoun Kharkongor, being found dead inside the toilet of the Dispur Police Station in Guwahati on 5 July 2015. The police claim that she was mentally ill and hung herself inside the toilet. According to the preliminary police reports, Ms. Victoria was found loitering around International Hospital in Guwahati and was later handed over to the police by the Hospital authority. The family of Ms. Victoria suspects foul play. The autopsy report, which might help explain the death, is not yet available. 

CASE NARRATIVE:

Ms. Victoria Dayoun Kharkongor, 39-years-old, is from Shillong. She was a teacher and started her teaching career at a school in Amritsar in 2002. She then started teaching in Hyderabad where she met her husband, and they have a 12-year-old daughter.  After leaving her job in Hyderabad, Ms Victoria was teaching in Arunachal Pradesh, but she would frequently travel to Hyderabad to visit her husband. 

Ms Victoria was travelling back from Hyderabad by train and halted in Guwahati before she could complete her journey towards Shillong to meet her mother. Her last contact was with her sister on 3 July 2015 informing that she has reached Howrah railway station at around 9:05 a.m. after which her cell phone was switched off. On July 6, the Laitumkhrah police in Shillong informed the family that they got a call from Dispur Police Station in Guwahati about the death of their daughter. 

The family left for Guwahati and met the police from Dispur Police Station, who told them that Ms Victoria was mentally ill and on July 5 she was seen wandering around the International hospital in Guwahati. The hospital authority informed the Dispur Police Station about it and she was taken away to the police station on the pretext of going to the ladies’ wash room. At around 10:20 p.m., Ms Victoria went to the toilet in the police station, but when she did not come out the police officials broke open the door and found her hanging inside the toilet from the window. Though she was rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), she was declared brought dead. 

Ms Victoria’s family suspects foul play based on the fact that the police have no proof to substantiate that Ms Victoria was mentally ill, and nor do they have the expertise of declaring a person mentally ill. Furthermore, they noticed an injury around Ms Victoria’s neck which does not look like a suicide injury. Lastly, the police asked her mother to sign a blank paper; when she questioned this, they replied that they need to write down the list of her daughter’s belongings, but she never got the bag containing all her clothes and documents. She only got one mobile phone, pan card, identity card and railway ticket from Ms Victoria’s handbag, which was handed over to her by the police.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

It is important to mention the judgment made by the Supreme Court of India with reference to the case of State of Maharashtra vs Christian Community Welfare, 2003, which disposed of the High Court mandate preventing a police officer from arresting a woman after sunset and before sunrise. However, the Supreme Court ruling said the following “While it is necessary to protect the female sought to be arrested by the Police from Police misdeeds, it may not be always possible and practical to have the presence of a lady constable when the necessity for such arrest arises, therefore, we think this direction issued requires some modification without disturbing the object behind the same. We think the object will be served if a direction is issued to the arresting authority that while arresting a female person, all efforts should be made to keep a lady constable present but in circumstances where the arresting officers is reasonably satisfied that such presence of a lady constable is not available or possible and/or the delay in arresting caused by securing the presence of a lady constable would impede the course of investigation such arresting officer for reasons to be recorded either before the arrest or immediately after the arrest be permitted to arrest a female person for lawful reasons at any time of the day or night depending on the circumstances of the case even that without the presence of a lady constable. We also direct with the above modification in regard to the direction issued by the High Court in clause (vii) of this appeal, this appeal is disposed of “. 

Furthermore, in cases where a person is suspected of suffering from mental illness and if the police were to apprehend the person such detention is not necessarily construed as arrest but is to be viewed as a police action to protect the person temporarily until that person’s custody is decided by a judicial intervention. The relevant portion of the Mental Health Act 1987, under Section 23(1) reads as follows:

Every Officer in charge of a police station may take or cause to be taken into protection any person found wandering at large within the limits of his station whom he has reason to believe to be so mentally ill as to be incapable of taking care of himself and under Sub-section (1) no person shall be detained by the police without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for taking her into such protection, without her relatives or friends, being informed of such grounds. 

Victoria’s death is custodial death. It is the responsibility of police to prove their innocence in this case. 

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the authorities listed below, asking them to investigate the mysterious death of Ms Victoria Dayoun Kharkongor. The autopsy report should be made available at the earliest to Ms Victoria’s family and the Dispur Police should also submit all the necessary reports in court while filing a case to prove there was no foul play behind her death. 

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of non-repetition and Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

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