The TN State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has condemned the practice of police harassing the kin of persons accused of crimes, so that the suspects could be easily nabbed.
“This commission has noticed many such cases, where police officers under the guise of searching a suspect/accused, are in the habit of harassing the family members to produce the accused before them,” Commission member Jayanthi, (retired) said and directed the Director General of Police to instruct all station house officers not to harass the family members while in search of the suspect/accused.
Jayanthi also awarded a compensation of Rs 10,000 payable to a school boy, who was harassed by the police, within three months.
The government should recover the amount from the pay and allowances of Murugesan, the then inspector of police attached to Ramanatham police station in Cuddalore district, Jayanthi ordered.
The case relates to a rivalry between P Periyasamy and Nallamuthu over a property situated within the jurisdiction of Ramanatham police station. Complaints and counter-complaints were lodged by both the groups against each other.
However, acting on a complaint from Nallamuthu, an influential person, inspector Murugesan picked up Periyasamy’s son Chinnayyan (17) to the police station on July 22, 2007 and kept him in the station till 10 p.m. Hence, the present complaint was lodged before the Commission.
The inspector, however, denied the allegation of unlawful detention and torture of the boy. After interrogating Chinnayyan, and carefully examining all the evidences, Jayanthi came to the conclusion that Murugesan had violated the human rights of Chinnayyan, a minor school boy, to the extent of detaining him from 6 a.m. to 10 pm. in the police station to use him to nab his family members.
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