Bihar: PUCL Alleges Illegal Detention, Handcuffing, Harassment of Members

Patna: Amid growing uproar over police brutality against student protestors in Delhi to Patna in and outside Parliament , the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Bihar has raised serious concern and expressed strong condemnation of the conduct of the Bihar Police in connection with the illegal detention and mistreatment of two members, who were part of PUCL’s legal support group for students and youths, who had been detained or arrested by the police for protesting against an unfair examination system and for reforms in the education system.

The PUCL on July 31 alleged that its two members - Akash Keshav, Advocate-on-Record, Patna High Court and Vrati Kumar, a law graduate and social worker, were illegally detained and mistreated on July 26-27. It alleged that the conduct of Bihar Police, in particular the SHO, Gandhi Maidan Police Station in Patna, was “fully illegal.”

“This clearly establishes that the police officers had no respect for the due process of law and deliberately implicated our two members, defenders of human rights, in a false case”, said a PUCL release here.

According to the organisation, in its meeting held on July 26, PUCL decided to extend legal support to students who had been detained or arrested by the police in connection with NEET student protests. Both Keshav and Kumar were part of PUCL’s legal support group. On the night of Sunday, July 26, when they reached the Gandhi Maidan Police Station to ascertain the status and welfare of the detained students, they were informed that the detainees were being produced before the learned SDJM at Chhajju Bagh. Then they reached the Chhajju Bagh residence of the SDJM. 

When they found that the students were being sent to judicial custody without following due process, they raised their objection with the court, said PUCL. None of the students was informed of the specific charges against them, it alleged. They were not provided with copies of the First Information Report (FIR), which violated their basic legal rights. Advocate Keshav, who was in his lawyer’s robes, sought that copies of the FIR be furnished to the detainees, that their statements be duly recorded, and that the court proceedings be recorded.

“These objections and demands were met with hostility from police personnel and persons in plain clothes present in the courtroom. The SHO of Gandhi Maidan Police Station, Mr Akhilesh Kumar Mishra, declared, in a vindictive manner, that since he had been injured during the protest, all students produced before the SDJM must be sent to jail as a punishment. Advocate Akash pleaded that despite his sympathy with the SHO for having sustained injuries during the student protest, that could not become the basis for collective punishment of the students presented before the SDJM,” the released added.

PUCL noted with grave concern that when advocate Keshav, as an officer of the court, persisted in making submissions on behalf of the detained students, police officers reportedly “turned aggressive and physically cornered” Keshav and Kumar, and other advocates present.

PYCL further alleged that the SHO of Gandhi Maidan Police Station threatened to prosecute Keshav unless he stopped raising objections on behalf of students. “When they did not give in, he ordered the premises doors locked, and — without any direction or permission from the learned Magistrate — arranged for a breath analyser and compelled both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar to undergo the test on the spot, without the device being calibrated or tested and, subsequently, without any blood or urine confirmatory test being conducted. On the strength of this breath analyser reading alone, both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar were taken into custody by the SHO, Gandhi Maidan, while denying their production before the presiding Magistrate, and whisked them off to the Kotwali Police Station, where they were held overnight.”

The organisation alleged that the SHO, Gandhi Maidan, with the help of a staff member, himself prepared the arrest memo at Kotwali Police Station and asked Keshav and Kumar to sign it. When they demanded a copy of the FIR, they were squarely denied it. This clearly establishes that the police officers had no respect for the due process of law and deliberately implicated our two members, defenders of human rights, in a false case.

“The use of a breath analyser or any other test on a citizen, without the permission of the court within its premises and without following due procedure (including calibration and confirmatory testing), and the consequent detention on that sole basis, is wholly illegal,” it stated.

“The following morning, on July 27, they were taken to a nearby hospital in handcuffs, examined and declared fit, and thereafter brought back into custody. Even at the hospital, their urine and blood samples were not taken. Despite repeated requests for removal of the handcuffs, they were paraded in handcuffs, first within the police station, then at the Hospital and later, at around 2:00 PM, through the premises of Patna Civil Court, in full public view — a practice contrary to established guidelines of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and Hon’ble High Court on the use of handcuffs, which permit their use only in exceptional circumstances and never routinely or to humiliate an accused. The handcuffs were removed only after members of the legal fraternity present at the court premises intervened and objected.”

“No police officer has the authority to detain, coerce, or intimidate an advocate or a social worker for making legitimate submissions in open court on behalf of detained persons. In a travesty of justice, where section 132 of the BNS should have been imposed on the SHO, Gandhi Maidan, for obstructing an officer of the court (in this case, advocate Akash Keshav) from discharging his duty, it was advocate Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar who were victimised by the police”, said PUCL.

Both Keshav and Kumar were thereafter produced before the Learned Special Judge (Excise). Upon hearing the arguments of the Public Prosecutor and advocates for Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar, the learned judge released them on Personal Recognisance (PR) Bond and reprimanded the Investigating Officer (IO) of the Kotwali Police Station for handcuffing them.

PUCL further expressed with concern that, following their release, the police released the arrest-memo photographs of Keshav and Kumar to the media and the SHO, Kotwali Police Station, gave statements to the print, electronic and social media, resulting in newspaper reports and videos that portrayed them as having been intoxicated and having misbehaved with a lady judicial officer.

PUCL said it viewed this as a “deliberate and malicious attempt to malign the reputation” of two individuals who were performing the legitimate duty of safeguarding the legal rights of young detainees, and to deflect attention from the violations of the due process of law by the police during the proceedings of the court.

“The release of their photograph and a one-sided, unverified narrative to the media by the police was deliberately done to prejudice public opinion against them. It violates not only procedural propriety but also the person’s right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said PUCL.

The PUCL demanded that the FIR filed against Keshav and Kumar be quashed.  

“An independent inquiry, preferably under the supervision of the Hon’ble Patna High Court, should be instituted into the conduct of the SHO, Gandhi Maidan Police Station, and other police personnel involved in the incident that occurred on the night of the 26th of July.”

It further said that strict action should be taken against the erring officers for illegal detention, coercive testing without judicial sanction, unauthorised use of handcuffs, leaking photos, giving irresponsible statements to the media, and mental harassment of  Keshav and Kumar.