NHRC notice to Gujarat DGP over alleged torture of minor in police custody in Rajkot

New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) The NHRC on Wednesday said it has issued a notice to the Gujarat police chief over reports alleging that a 17-year-old youth was tortured in police custody in Rajkot district last month.

The alleged incident reportedly came to light on October 6 after a "video of the torture surfaced on social media", the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said.

The NHRC, in a statement, said it has "taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that a 17-year-old boy was tortured in police custody at the Gandhigram Police Station in Rajkot district of Gujarat on September 1".

The rights panel has observed that the content of the media report, if true, raises a serious issue of human rights violations.

Therefore, it has issued a notice to the Director General of Police of Gujarat, seeking a detailed report in two weeks.

According to the media report, carried on October 7, in the video of the incident, an officer could be seen "pulling hair from the scalp of the boy while other police officials were laughing", it said.

Reportedly, on the night of September 1, the youth was taken into custody in connection with a "stabbing incident a day before". The minor and his associates were detained and later presented before a juvenile court, which remanded him to a juvenile detention centre. He was released on bail approximately two weeks later, the statement said.

In another statement issued on Wednesday, the NHRC said it has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report about the death of two men due to alleged police brutality in separate incidents in Madhya Pradesh.

The Commission has issued a notice to the state Director General of Police seeking a detailed report in two weeks. The report is expected to include the status of the investigation, it said.

According to the media report, carried on October 11, in the first incident, a 22-year-old final year B.Tech student died after he was allegedly assaulted by the two constables while he was returning from a party on the intervening night of October 9-10 in Bhopal district.

Reportedly, the victim and his friends had broken a bottle on the road, after which police approached them for questioning. While his two friends managed to flee, the victim was caught and allegedly beaten up. Reportedly, the CCTV footage circulating on social media shows a constable striking the youth with a baton, it said.

In the other incident, a 45-year-old man, a resident of Bamuria village under Shadaura police station of Ashoknagar district, allegedly died after he was beaten up by police personnel while searching for illicit liquor on October 9, the statement said.

His family reportedly claimed that he was drowned in a water-filled pit by police personnel after assaulting him, whereas the police maintained that he fell in the pit while trying to flee, it said. PTI KND RT