Illegal detention, torture: Rs 5-lakh aid for youth who was made to eat aluminum wire

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In February, Gyanesh (22) had cleared the physical test for the constable’s position in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and was preparing for the written test to be held in May. On April 9, local police and Special Operations Group officers from Dohri Ghat police station came looking for him allegedly in connection with a loot and murder case reported from the area.

The petitioner alleged that the police picked him up despite him not being wanted in any case. Since then, they kept him in illegal custody till April 16. In between, he was allegedly made to eat aluminium wires.

“Ganga Prasad, a farmer, who had been trying to find out about what had happened to his son, was not told anything. On April 16, he was told that his son was ill and the policemen admitted him to a hospital in Mau. From there, the father rushed him to BHU Hospital in Varanasi, where he could not be admitted, as there was no reference paper. He was then admitted in a private hospital,” said counsel for the petitioner, Dhirendra Singh.

He added: “But his condition continued to deteriorate and he was taken to King George’s Medical College Hospital in Lucknow on April 18. There, doctors took out aluminium wires from his throat and abdomen. He had also been subjected to electric shocks. The entire medical evidence has been submitted before the court… It took nearly a month for Gyanesh to leave the hospital.”

Earlier, a magisterial inquiry was ordered into the incident and its report established that Gyanesh was illegally detained.

The court, while rejecting the argument of the police that Gyanesh had consumed aluminium wires on his own, said: “The petitioner has been subjected to torture by police taking recourse to violence… has been forced to suffer lot of physical and mental agony as is reflected from the photograph and for a number of days, he has been forced to spend in hospital. Awarding of compensation is demand of the situation, looking to the agony that a young man has to undergo, and the fact that his career to join IBTP has been withered away.”

“Treatment meted to the petitioner is purely inhuman that has inflicted immense mental pain, leading to a sense of insecurity and helplessness in him,” it added.
While awarding the compensation of Rs 5 lakh, the court said the petitioners were free to seek legal remedy if they felt that the amount was less.

The court, while directing Mau SP to register an FIR against the policemen concerned, asked him to entrust an officer — not below the rank of a circle officer — to probe the matter. “We find that despite application under Section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code being moved and Mau SP being aware of the entire situation, till date, FIR has not been lodged…” the court said.