In most of the cases, the arrest is done without sufficient evidence;
consequently the rate of conviction is as low as 2%. An illegal practice
followed by the police is to detain the relatives of the person they are
looking for if they cannot find him. Many a times such illegally detained
persons are ill - treated and tortured till the absconding person surrenders.
In a typical case of this type, the police arrested the father and brother of
a suspect in a murder case and detained them illegally in their custody for
a day. When the National Human Rights Commission asked for a report
from the authorities, the Senior Superintendent of the district denied the
allegation and reported that the persons in question had been summoned
to the police station for a brief interrogation. The NHRC’s inquiry, however,
showed this to be false and established that the two had been illegally
detained to force the surrender of the suspect. 10
A. Reasons for indriscrimate arrests and illegal detention
One of the reasons for indiscriminate arrest and illegal detention may be
the fact that police are in total control of suspects when they are in police
custody. The pressure to solve a particular case is another reason. The
police force has neither the time, patience nor willingness to resort to
scientific investigation techniques for solving a case. Lack of infrastructural
support is also responsible for lukewarm response to the option of scientific
investigations.
Preventive arrests also can be a cause for violation of human rights of the
people. There are two noticeable trends. On the one hand, on the pretext
of national security, before 26th Jan or 15th Aug, petty criminals or people
belonging to a particular community are taken into custody. On the other
hand, in order to keep a petty criminal out of police station’s jurisdiction,
sometimes weapons and drugs are implanted to falsely implicate him and
send him to judicial custody for a prolonged period. The same process
may be repeated when the person is released from custody. Needless to
say, such, ‘criminals’ get saddled with a track of criminal record during the
course. Many of them subsequently become easy targets of extra judicial
killings, once a reward is announced on their head.
10
Case no 1501624/98-99/NHRC
Manual on Human Rights for Police Officers
23