“State is bound to take responsibility for such brutalities”
MADURAI: Police excesses against defenceless women, children, infirm and the aged cannot be condoned under the pretext of their discharging their duty, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled.
Justice K. Chandru said the State was bound to take responsibility for such brutalities and punish erring policemen, besides taking curative action.
The police could not claim immunity from disciplinary proceedings arguing that they were performing their duties.
Justice K. Chandru made the observations while dismissing a writ petition filed by a constable who was suspended last year, along with eight others, for allegedly attacking the residents of a Dalit colony at Vayalpadi in Perambalur district on April 4, 1999.
Pregnant woman, student beaten up
A pregnant woman, the mother of a 21-year-old boy afflicted with paralysis and a standard X student were among those who alleged that they had been beaten up.
“After perusing the inquiry report [filed by the Revenue Divisional Officer], one begins to wonder about the statement of the petitioner that he was only discharging his duties in the village. It is not explained what was the duty he was discharging at around 7 p.m. on the fateful night, that too, inside the Adi Dravidar colony,” the judge said.
The incident occurred after a scuffle between some landlords and the Dalits over the government’s move to acquire the former’s land for building houses for the latter.
The RDO’s inquiry report, submitted to the Collector on March 21, 2000, was forwarded to the Government only on March 11, 2005 with the recommendation that disciplinary proceedings be opened against the police personnel.
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