Pay ₹1.5 lakh to 6 suspects paraded before media in handcuffs: Bihar govt told

PATNA: The Bihar State Human Rights Commission (BSHRC) has ordered the state government to pay ₹25,000 each to six persons including two minors who were handcuffed and paraded before the media in Madhepura district following their arrest under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act in January 2021.

The commission also condemned the then Madhepura superintendent of police for the incident, holding that the handcuffing of undertrials and their publication of photographs in the media was a violation of their human rights. Besides, the police should not have arrested the two minors, aged 16 and 12, in the first instance and should have produced them before the juvenile justice board

In his order of July 13, BSHRC member Ujjawal Kumar Dubey gave the state police eight weeks to pay the ₹1.5 lakh compensation to the six suspects and issue guidelines to police officials to prevent the recurrence of any such incident in future. The commission will review the compliance again on October 4.

The case relates to a raid on January 3, 2021, at a hotel in Madhepura which, the police alleged, was used for prostitution. Among those arrested was the owner of the hotel. The women were released by the police team while the males were taken into custody. The district police produced the six accused before the media, their hands cuffed and a rope tied to their waist.

The commission took suo moto cognisance of the photographs which appeared in local newspapers and sought an explanation from the district police.

In his report, the then Madhepura SP said one of the six suspects did not want to appear before the media and was repeatedly trying to run away. “Therefore, handcuffs and ropes were used to prevent any untoward incidents, as the accused could try to jump from the third floor SP’s office….,” he added.

“The dignity cannot be restored if the court acquits the under trials. In this case, two of the accused are minors, aged 12 years and 16 years and they should have been immediately produced before the juvenile justice board. That was not done in violation of their human rights,” Dubey said in the order.