UP DGP reiterates guidelines to prevent custodial deaths

Upset over incidents of custodial deaths in Uttar Pradesh, UP DGP Prashant Kumar has issued strict instructions to all police commissioners and district police chiefs spelling out guidelines to prevent such incidents.
UP DGP said that even if an individual is accused of a heinous crime, it’s the constitutional duty of the police to safely present the accused before the court.
Orders to effectively stop police custodial deaths have been issued by the police headquarters, but some incidents of disregard to these orders have come to fore, DGP Kumar conceded in the recent missive.
Complaints of deaths in police custody harm the image of the police department and dent the image of police of being devoted to duty and public service, said the missive, a copy of which is with HT.
The DGP ordered that care should be taken of the person being taken into police custody. From arresting him and putting him in a lockup, guidelines spelled out by the Supreme Court should be followed in letter and spirit.
The order also instructed police officials to ensure compliance with guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from time to time while noting that incidents have also come to light wherein individuals have died owing to comorbidity and other reasons necessitating the need that before an individual or an accused is taken in for questioning it is ensured that the person is not ailing from any serious illness.
“Any individual/accused arrested suffering from serious illness should not be brought to police station and if such a person falls ill in police station, treatment at a hospital be ensured keeping the emergency in mind,” the missive instructed.
Spelling out the guidelines to effectively prevent custodial deaths, the UP DGP has instructed that no person be brought or be detained at a police station or a police outpost without the knowledge of the in-charge concerned. If a person is brought, then all documentation regarding it should be done promptly, the missive said.
If a person is injured or serious, the individual should not be kept in the lockup and instead be taken to the hospital for immediate treatment, it added.
Making plain that any interrogation of an accused or an individual should be done using psychological techniques with utmost patience and only in the presence of a responsible officer. Under no circumstances should the person be assaulted, the guidelines said while adding that no private individual should be allowed to question an accused or a person in a police station. Also, questioning should be done either by the police station in-charge or an inspector/sub inspector deputed by the in-charge.
While instructing to ensure that the police lockup should not have any hooks or windows, the 18-point guidelines say that the accused should be allowed only the clothes worn by him and the day officer should check the individual to ensure that the person does not have any rope, wire, towel cloth, sharp objects, blade, drugs or intoxicant that could aid in attempting suicide.