Day 16 – 18 : Cases
involving police brutality
As I mentioned before, the case files I’m reading seem to
have troubling trends. One of the major issues I’ve come across is police
brutality and general corruption in police forces across the country, and even
abroad.
Case #1
After Balwant Singh Rajoana was convicted and sentenced to
death, people in Punjab began to protest, and religious groups began to clash
over the issue, causing hate crimes and violence amidst the protests. One day,
a protest was taking place outside a place of worship. Now I can’t say whether
this was a peaceful protest like the prosecution claims, or a protest that got
out of hand like the police states, but at some point, the police got involved,
shots were fired, and two young men were shot. One of the men survived, but the
other was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The police
claimed that they only fired shots into the air to gain control of the
situation by scaring people off because the situation was getting out of
control and they were afraid that violence would ensue. They said that after
the crowd had dispersed, there weren’t any dead bodies or injured people. But
testimony by many of the people present offers another description of the
events: the police began to open fire at the protesters for no apparent reason,
and that two people were shot, one of whom died not long after.
Case #2
The lawyers at the firm filed a public litigation suit
against the State after they read in the news that two men were given pardon by
the State. These men were previously police officers, who were convicted of
custodial killing. They had illegally arrested and held two innocent men in
prison. These victims were severely tortured, ultimately resulting in their
deaths. The officers were convicted and sent to jail, but were soon given
pardon based on the fact that they had served their country in the police force
for a number of years and had been successful in capturing terrorists.
Custodial killing is a major problem in India, and unfortunately if the police
officers convicted of it are excused and get away with it, it will continue to
be a problem.
Case #3
Another case which highlighted extreme policy brutality and
denial of justice took place in the U.A.E. Seventeen Indians were given the death
penalty on allegations that they killed one Pakistani youth. The seventeen
prisoners revealed in interviews that they were tortured for nine continuous
days; they were given electric shocks, beatings with golf clubs and plastic
pipes, forced to stand on one foot for long periods of time, and denied any
opportunity to sleep. They were forced to make a confession of crime. They were
denied prayer books and their articles of faith, which were cut off, kicked
around, and thrown into the trash. They were made to sign papers in Arabic,
which they could neither read nor understand. While in custody, they were
forced to dramatize the beating up of a policeman as if it were the actual
crime. This was videotaped and submitted as actual video evidence of the crime
in court. The entire court process took place in Arabic, and no translator was
made available. The accused were never given a copy of their charge sheet, nor
their judgment. And during this whole process, only to make matters worse, the
Indian Consulate did not provide any help to them, and prevented other human
rights organizations from getting involved once these organizations criticized
the Consulate for being absent.
No comments:
Post a Comment