Police culture unchanged

• Gujjarpura case shows no change has taken place

The suspension by the DIG Lahore of the SHO Gujjarpura and three of his subordinates, after the recovery of nine suspects from a Forest Department rest-house, showed that, despite efforts by successive governments, the police culture of yore is alive and well. One of the pillars of the police culture is arrest all those remotely connected with a case, and then beating all of them to within an inch of their lives, until one confesses. That confession, when repeated before a magistrate, as a confessional statement under Section 164 of the PPC, becomes strong evidence in court. One of the best defences to a Section 164 statement is evidence that there was police coercion. Therefore, the police over the years has become quite adept at causing no such harm during interrogation as broken bones or fresh bruises.

However, the police manning the stations has found that society frowns even on manhandling accused who have committed the crime they have been charged with. Not only was the noise of beating and of the cries of prisoners they were administered likely to draw attention of neighbours in crowded urban localities, but they could provide evidence of the crime. Some bright spark among the police came up with a solution: carrying out interrogations outside of the police stations, with the added advantage that such prisoners were not subject to judicial oversight, and could be kept in illegal confinement.

It has not been unknown for police officers even to rent appropriate houses for use as torture cells, but it seems the Gujjarpura police had gone one better, and were using the resthouse of another government department. This would presumably obviate the need for raising the rent for a torture cell from bribes. It seems the placing of CCTV cameras within police stations is not enough, and the judiciary will have to monitor not just the accused, but also the investigators, and make explain the time when they could visit an off-station torture cell for an interrogation in the old style.