INDIA: Illegal detention of a commoner is shrouded in allegations of corruption and the fabrication of case records 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the illegal detention of 53 year-old Mr. Ashok Kumar Basu Roy at Dum-Dum police station, Kolkata, West Bengal, India on 20 September 2006.  According to the information received from its loca partner MASUM in West Bengal, the victim was forcefully discharged from a hospital where he was admitted to receive treatment and that later he was detained in custody beyond the permitted period, produced before a magistrate with alleged fabricated charges and currently under detention, now by the order of the magistrate. The victim also alleges that he was forced to pay bribes at the detention centre.

CASE DETAILS:

On 20 September 2006, Ashok Basu Roy was arrested from the B. S. Medical Centre where he was admitted to receive treatment for injuries that he sustained from an assault. Roy was allegedly assaulted by Mr. Kamal Ahmed on the same day when he demanded repayment of a loan. It is alleged that Ahmed instead of repaying the money assaulted Roy along with some local hooligans. Roy had to run for his life and later got himself admitted in the hospital to treat the injuries he sustained in the assault.

It is alleged that Ahmed influenced the local elected member to the state legislative assembly who in turn moblised the local police to take Roy into custody. Roy was forcefully discharged from the hospital and taken to the Dum Dum police station. There he was detained till 22 September and later produced before the local magistrate. It is alleged that when Roy was produced before the magistrate the police produced a charge-sheet dated 22 September 2006 in which it was alleged that Roy was suspected of attempting to rape Ahmed’s minor daughter. Surprisingly the complaint allegedly lodged by Ahmed is dated 22 September 2006, for which even according to police records the date of arrest was a day earlier. This means the police arrested Roy even before a complaint was lodged against him at the police station. It is also alleged that the arrest memo produced in the court mentions that Roy was arrested from his house.

Even though this factual contradiction was apparent from the records of the case produced before the local magistrate and though Roy pleaded innocence he was remanded to police custody till 5 October 2006 by the magistrate. His bail application was also rejected by the magistrate on 10 October 2006. Roy was later remanded to Dum Dum Central Jail.

At the Dum Dum Central Jail Roy was asked to pay the prison officials for everything, including to be treated as a human being. It is alleged that the prison officers who forced Roy to pay Rs. 500 [USD 11], demanded more money, for which Roy fearing for his life wrote to his wife asking her to make arrangements for payment to the jail officers.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

According to the procedural laws in India, a person who is under treatment in a hospital must not be forcefully discharged from the hospital and taken into police custody without the permission of the doctor treating the person. The Criminal Procedure Code of India also requires that a person arrested must be produced in a court within 24 hours of arrest. As evident from this incident the police fabricates case records to appear in records that the date, time and place of arrest does not violate the procedural mandates as required in law. However, a challenge on these issues is practically impossible since the courts in India are also not sensitive to these issues. Even if such an issue is brought to the notice of the court the court takes years to decide upon these issues owing to the delay in court procedures in India.

Issues like delays in courts, fallen and corrupt prosecution system and a police which believes in custodial torture as the only way to investigate a crime has literally reduced the criminal justice dispensation system in India into a waste. This has also resulted in the ordinary people loosing faith in the system.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
The AHRC urge you to pressure the government of India, the state government of West Bengal in particular, to order an impartial investigation into this case. We also urge you to write to the authorities named below urging the Government of India to withdraw the reservations it has placed while ratifying international conventions and also to expedite the process of ratifying the Convention against Torture (CAT) and not to place any reservation upon ratification.

 

 

 

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