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Why interrogation of accused shouldn’t be videographed, HC asks Punjab, Haryana DGPs
High court says interrogation is recorded in video across the civilized world to ensure that no inhuman methods of interrogation are adopted by the police
The Punjab and Haryana high court has asked the director generals of police (DGPs) of the two states as to why videography of the interrogation of accused in police custody should not be conducted, at least in certain cases, to mitigate allegations of inhumane treatment.
Across the civilized world, interrogation is recorded in video to ensure that no inhuman methods of interrogation are adopted by the police. the court said.
“Proper methods of investigation and interrogation also result in criminals being convicted. Thus there would be no excuse to say that if interrogation is made subject to videography, it may not have the desired results,” bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh observed.
Also, a disclosure statement made in police custody, unless it leads to actual recovery etc, would normally not be admissible in evidence, it added.
The court was hearing a plea from Kaushal, an alleged gangster, whose name recently cropped up in a broad daylight gruesome murder of Youth Akal Dal leader Vikramjit Middukhera in Mohali. He had demanded that videography be conducted whenever he is taken for interrogation — right from leaving the jail premises to his reaching the police station concerned.
Also, he sought videography during interrogation so that he can ask the court concerned to provide him a copy, if needed, to show that he was tortured during questioning.
Kaushal (39), who is lodged in a Sangrur jail with 38 criminal cases against him, had further claimed that agencies are conspiring to kill him or eliminate him in a fake encounter at the behest of a rival gangster.
“They spit on the floor and ask me to lick it. If I refuse, they forced me to do so. Officers urinate on me after removing clothes and give me merciless beatings. Sharp objects are inserted in my private parts besides giving electric shocks in the jail as well as when on remand,” he alleged without naming the police, prompting the court to seek response from the top cops.
The Punjab government had told the HC that videography of 26,542 persons lodged in different jails of the state would be very difficult every time when they are taken to courts.
However, CCTV cameras are installed at the police stations, in and around prisons and on the court premises, the HC was informed.
Haryana too had shared similar views.
Kaushal’s counsel Bipan Ghai had argued that even a criminal of the worst kind can’t even be subjected to inhuman treatment.
The high court observed that the kind of allegations levelled by Kushal were of the most depraved kind of behavior.
It sought affidavits of both the DGPs.
