Do you thrash prisoners on way back to jail?

After custodial deaths and violence in prisons, the Bombay high court is now hearing allegations of police assault on prisoners while being escorted back to the jail from the court. The court has directed a Thane sessions judge to hold an inquiry into the incident.

The division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice AR Joshi passed the order in an application filed through the jail by a prisoner, Ravi Solanki. According to Solanki, while being brought back from the magistrate’s court to the jail in Thane, the prisoners got into a brawl with the policemen who subsequently thrashed them. They were taken to the Vasai police station where they were beaten up again and offences were registered against them, Solanki has contended.

Earlier, the judges had observed that the case raises some important questions, and appointed senior advocate Niteen Pradhan as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the matter. According to the affidavit filed by the additional superintendent of police, the prisoners were detained at the police station and orders were obtained from the magistrate over the phone. The police in their affidavit have said that the prisoners became unruly on the way back to the jail, and one of them started banging his head on the car window and broke the glass. They even started beating the policemen, the affidavit said. “I have gone over the application and the police’s affidavit. I will make my submissions before the court at the next hearing,” Pradhan told DNA.

“We do not understand how a prisoner, who was in the custody of the magistrate, and was being taken back from the court, could be detained in a police station without the permission of the magistrate?” the judges said in their order.

The judges felt that the probability of police officials assaulting prisoners is higher, than vice-versa, because the prisoners were in their custody, and they were armed. “Prima facie, it appears that the custody of the prisoners and their detention at the police station was illegal because it was not permitted by the magistrate,” the court noted. The judges stated that the prisoners were kept in police custody for 24 hours and produced before the magistrate. Concluding that all these aspects need inquiry, the judges directed the appointment of a Thane sessions court judge and directed him to report to the court within two months. The judges also stayed the proceedings in the first information report (FIR) filed by the police against the prisoners.