The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : People have a role in supervising police: Sachar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 29, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

People have a role in supervising police: Sachar

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Calling for a role for civil rights organisations and the public in any mechanism to supervise the police establishment, the former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Rajinder Sachar, said the police need to be protected from political interference.

He was addressing a symposium on police reforms, organised by the Criminology Department of the University of Madras and the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry chapter of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), here on Saturday.

It was a shame that more people were killed in police firings after the Independence than in police action during the pre-Independence era, Mr. Sachar said. Whenever one person was killed in a police firing, the Home Minister of the State concerned must step down. Also, the matter must be probed by a High Court judge.

Former Director-General of Police V.R. Lakshminarayanan said wealth and political power influenced the functioning of the police. Any supervisory body must be non-political. He wondered how courts permitted narco-analysis on accused/suspects though it had the potential to cause permanent danger or even death. V. Suresh, president, PUCL-TN, said the Supreme Court had set a 100-day deadline to usher in police reforms lying idle for over 25 years. Apprehending that the reforms could be pushed through in a hurry, he said the outcome of the symposium would be an important input for a practical and pragmatic solution.

R. Thilagaraj, head of the department of criminology, spoke.

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