Policemen must pay for lockup bash, says court

MUMBAI: Taxpayers’ money will no longer be used to compensate for police excesses. On Thursday, the Bombay high court upheld an order of the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission (MHRC) making four policemen personally liable to monetarily compensate a man they had beaten up in custody.

The MHRC had ordered Inspector Jayant Sankpal and three others of the Shahu Nagar police station to compensate Baban Gholap, who was tortured in their custody.

The state has already paid Gholap Rs45,000 as damages. According to the MHRC’s order, the money was to be deducted from the salaries of Sankpal, Sub-Inspector GG Navale, Assistant Sub-Inspector KR Kubal, and Constable BP Parab. Sankpal challenged this order in the high court, but Justice JN Patel and Justice Roshan Dalvi upheld the MHRC order.

On October 19, 2004, Judge Anant Mane of the MHRC ruled on a petition by Gholap’s mother, Suman, that "torture is a wound to the soul In cases of human rights violation by police atrocities," the MHRC said, "there is the internationally recognised concept of personal liability."

The officers argued that Gholap was a habitual offender. But the MHRC said that "cannot justify physical torture".

Former  police chief Satish Sahney believes it is the force’s duty to conduct an inquiry and dock a portion of the guilty officers’ salaries.