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Justice Devan Ramachandran of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that installing CCTV cameras in police station and cells will bring down cases of police brutality.

The Court was presiding over a matter where a Dalit man was handcuffed to the handrail of the Police Station for asking for the receipt of a complaint he had preferred before the Station.

The petition was filed by K Rajeev of Thenmala, Kollam, alleging police harassment. The court had earlier found that, "at least two Police Officers had treated the petitioner with unimaginable barbarity– handcuffing him to the handrail of the police station and registering multiple cases against him- all because he dared to ask receipt for a complaint which he had preferred before the Police Complaints Authority."

The man has been charged with obstruction of police under Section 177. Justice Ramachandra pointed out that the police was keeping the case under section 117 (e) pending against the complainant so that it can later negotiate with him to drop his allegations against the officer who had chained and lodged the FIR against him.

“Are you (police) not ashamed to say that a man came inside the police station and used force to obstruct an officer from discharging his duties?" "Very unfortunate that a citizen who came to make a complaint was chained to the railing and then slapped with the offence under section 117 (e) of the Kerala Police Act for obstructing a police officer from discharging his duties," Justice Devan Ramachandran said. This conduct is of the kind which occurred in 18th century dungeons and not of the 21st century, the court said.

The DySP had said so in his report after carrying out an internal inquiry into the allegations made by the complainant against two police officers, one of them an SHO. However, Inspector General of Police (south-zone) had submitted that CCTV record has to be retrieved to see whether charged under Section 117 can be dropped.

Justice Ramachandran observed it is a concern that the police was now waiting to "retrieve" CCTV footage of the incident which occurred in February this year to find out the truth behind the complainant's claims, even though the video was not available in May as per a report submitted by a DySP in October.

The court further said that police stations should not be allowed to function in this manner and that "this brutality will stop only when we have functional CCTV cameras there". It said it was going to exhort the legislature to do away with section 117 (e) of Kerala Police Act.

The Court ordered the police to file an affidavit on why the complainant can not be compensated under the public law remedy for the trauma and harassment suffered by him. The matter is posted for second week of January 2022.

 

Case Title: Rajeev K Vs. State of Kerala & Ors.