Upholding the right to dignity that is often ignored by the inhuman treatment meted out by the police, the Supreme Court has castigated Mumbai policeman Jaywant Sankpal for violating the human rights of one Baban Gholap because he had a criminal record.
The apex court on Friday rejected an appeal filed by assistant senior inspector Sankpal posted at the Shahu Nagar police station in Matunga (East) challenging a Bombay high court judgment that concurred with the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) order in 2004 holding him and his four other cop accomplices culpable of violating the human rights of Gholap.
Gholap’s mother Suman had complained to MSHRC alleging that when her son, a domestic help, approached the Shahu Nagar police station on August 8, 2002, to file a complaint of assault against one Abbas Ali, a shopkeeper, the police detained and arrested him instead on Ali’s counter-complaint.
The next day, when the police produced Gholap before the
magistrate concerned for remand his legs, arms and head were bandaged. When Suman cried foul and said she would file compliant with the court, she was threatened that her son would be implicated in other criminal cases.
The police then registered several cases against Gholap, and also accused him of rape. He was detained under Maharashtra Preventive Detention Act by the commissioner of police. This order had been confirmed by the advisory board. It was alleged that Gholap had assaulted Ali and his sons with a razor. The police also alleged Gholap had demanded Rs5,000 as `hafta’ from them.
But the doctor who examined Gholap said he had suffered pain in the anterior chest, along with several other injuries. After Ali’s examination, the doctor also rebutted police’s charge that he had been attacked by a razor.
Accepting the complaint by Gholap’s mother, the MSHRC on October 19, 2004, observed that there were discrepancies and contradictions in the alleged incident. It also directed the state government to pay Rs45,000 in compensation to Gholap. This amount was to be recovered in equal proportion from the cops who ill-treated Gholap. They are police sub-inspector (PSI) GG Navele, PSI JP Sankpal, and PSI KR Kubal. It also asked the state government to submit its compliance report to the commission within six seeks.
Though the state government didn’t challenge the rights panel’s order, Sankpal did. He moved the apex court and sought to damn the findings of the commission. He said that Gholap had a criminal record. However, a bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Mukundakam Sharma dismissed the appeal saying there is `sufficient material’ which was examined the commission and the high court.
The judges held that except for a bare denial by the accused cops, there is no material on record to refute the complaint of torture. “It is clear that for whatever reasons, which could also include his [Gholap’s] antecedents, he was treated differently from Abbas Ali against whom he had come to make a complaint and ended up being the accused,” the top court added.
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