Kolkata, Oct 29 (IANS) Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday issued a notice to Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, questioning the role of law enforcement personnel in making three arrested suspects walk barefoot with ropes tied around their waists in public.
The rights panel has sought a detailed report from the police chief within two weeks regarding the incident, which occurred in the Sarsuna area of South Kolkata.
In its notice, the NHRC asked the Kolkata Police Commissioner to verify the accuracy of the published reports and specify under which provisions of law the accused were subjected to such treatment in custody.
The commission emphasised that if the allegations against the police officers are substantiated, it constitutes a grave violation of human rights.
The controversy stems from an incident that began on Sunday, October 26, when an 18-year-old youth visited Sarsuna alongside his 19-year-old friend to meet his underage girlfriend. After a friend of the girl’s uncle allegedly witnessed the youth kissing the minor, the situation escalated rapidly.
Members of the girl’s family allegedly detained the two youths at their residence for an extended period, subjecting them to harassment, before summoning the boyfriend’s father to the location.
The girl’s family then allegedly held the three individuals at gunpoint, forced them to strip, and paraded them for approximately 50 meters on the public road outside the house.
Following a complaint, officers from the Sarsuna Police Station arrested three individuals—the minor girl’s father, her uncle, and a family friend.
However, the police faced severe criticism the following day when officers brought the three accused back to the neighbourhood to reconstruct the crime scene.
The suspects were reportedly made to walk roughly 100 meters through the locality clad only in shorts, barefoot, and bound with ropes around their waists, triggering the human rights body’s intervention.
–IANS
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