After Sangli custodial death, Maharashtra asks police to refrain from beating accused

Kothale, 26, was arrested with another man, Amol Bhandare, on November 6 for robbing a motorbike-borne man of Rs2,000 at knife-point, a senior police officer said.

After the death of Aniket Kothale in the Sangli police lock-up on November 7, Prabhat Kumar, inspector general of police (IGP), law and order, Maharashtra has asked all police units to use scientific methods and not beat up the arrested accused to get information out of them.

Aniket Kothale’s family. (HT FILE)

Kothale, 26, was arrested with another man, Amol Bhandare, on November 6 for robbing a motorbike-borne man of ₹2,000 at knife-point, a senior police officer said.

Based on the allegations of torture made by Bhandare, six men, including five policemen, have been arrested under sections 302 (murder), 330 (causing hurt to extort confession), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 331 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort confession) and 34 of the IPC. The arrested policemen were suspended and have been dismissed from service. Seven others have been suspended for being in the police station at the time of the incident.

The circular, a copy of which is with HT, asks the police to use ‘interrogation techniques’, instead of harassing the suspect physically or mentally to collect evidence. The police commissionerates and district police have been asked to immediately probe allegations of custodial torture.

When an accused is arrested, the police use various techniques to get information and build evidence. The IGP has suggested use of tests such as lie detector, polygraph, brain-mapping and narco-analysis.

While police commissionerates and district police have been asked to follow the guidelines issued by the DGP office and the state CID officials, senior officials have been asked to conduct workshops to educate officials

Inputs from Debasish Panigrahi