Accused alleged custodial torture, court calls for report

A Tihar jail superintendent has been asked by a Delhi court to submit to it a report on the alleged custodial torture of two theft case accused with their medical reports showing physical injuries.

Metropolitan Magistrate Aanchal sought the report along with their medical reports and asked the jail superintendent if they had, during their judicial custody, complained of any manhandling or maltreatment by any one.

The court order came after accused Rajendra and Sarfaraz, arrested on December 1 in a motorcycle theft case, told the judge that they were mercilessly beaten by the policemen in civil dresses at Moti Nagar police station.

Their counsel from Delhi State Legal Services Authority, N K Sawarswat, told the court that the accused had been harassed and tortured physically and showed it the various purported injuries on their bodies.

The two were produced before the court on December 2 which remanded them in judicial custody for a day.

Their counsel alleged the police first got the two medically examined and then beat them up at the police station before producing them in the court on December 2, when they were sent to judicial custody for a day.

On December 3 when they came to the court, their counsel complained of physical torture to them and the judge ordered their medical examination.

On their next production before the court on December 6, the judge noted, "The MLCs of the duo showed vast differences and that the accused has received a number of bruises, abrasions and swellings."

However, the police submitted in the court that the duo were not injured in its custody.