U.P. DGP issues guidelines to curb custodial deaths
Prashant Kumar has issued an eight-point guideline and expressed desire to get it followed strictly during the interrogation process
With a view to curbing incidents of deaths and harassment in police custody across state, Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Prashant Kumar on Thursday issued detailed guidelines to all district police chiefs and field officers of the state.
He instructed them to not bring any person or suspect without cross-checking whether the person is suffering from any illness or not.
The guidelines also instruct that any person or suspect should be brought for questioning after informing police station in-charges and the same should be mentioned in general diary of the respective police station so that proper transparency is maintained.
In a press note shared by U.P. police headquarters, the officials informed that the DGP has issued eight-point guideline and expressed desire to get it followed strictly during the interrogation process.
They said the guidelines read that the police should ensure that the person or suspect is not suffering from any critical illness and rush them to hospital if any suspect’s health condition deteriorates even after not having any previous medical history.
Besides, the cops are also asked to do photography and videography of the entire sequence of events if any suspect’s health deteriorates in police custody and also ensure providing medical facility.
The guidelines further say the cops should use psychological tricks to extract truth from the suspect rather than using physical assault and only investigation officer or the police station in-charges should interrogate the suspect.
The guidelines further say the police station in-charges and other officials concerned should ensure that a detailed report of the incident is send to National Human Rights Commission after registering an FIR of custodial death in such incidents. Moreover, the district level authorities have been asked to investigate such cases without any biases.
The DGP directed district police chiefs and other officials concerned to not register FIRs directly in disputes related to marriages, family, property, business and medical negligence without verifying and cross-checking the allegations or without providing chance to the second party to prove their point.
He said the police should not make a businessman, entire management or senior authorities of the institution accused in case of any accidents at workplace. He said these types of FIRs unnecessarily consume time of police as well as of judiciary.
