Custodial death: policemen expected to maintain law and order

Policemen are expected to maintain law and order and not take it in their hands, the Delhi High Court said today while handing down eight-year jail term to six Delhi Police officials in a custodial death case.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta modified the conviction of the six policemen for the offence of murder to unintentional killing and reduced their jail term from life imprisonment to eight years.
"The court is satisfied that although the culpability of the accused for the homicidal death of the deceased has been proved beyond reasonable doubt, the evidence of the prosecution does not precisely point out which of the accused caused the fatal injuries," the bench said.

The court said the policemen were expected to act responsibly with a view to protect the life and liberty of the citizens.
It noted that some of the convicts have served nearly six years in jail and were released on bail.
"These are all uniformed policemen who are expected to maintain the law and order and are not to take law and order in their own hands. They are expected to act responsibly with a view to protecting the life and liberty of the citizens," it said while disposing off the appeals of the policemen.

Those held guilty were Avinash Kumar, Kuldeep Singh, Sahensher Pal, Sushil Kumar, Ramesh Chand and Chottey Lal.

The six policemen, belonging to the Special Staff (North- east) of the Delhi Police, had appealed against their conviction by the trial court in 2000 for the murder of one Dalip Chakraborty in 1995.
He had died on August 8, 1995 due to the injuries caused by them while he was in their custody on July 30 and 31, 1995.
The court said the accused had assembled for the raid on the house of the deceased past midnight. They were proceeding on the basis of some secret information that Chakraborty was possessing illegal arms which otherwise could not be expected to be found out except by conducting the raid.

"It appears that the above mission somewhere went terribly wrong," it said.
The high court also upheld their conviction for the offences of trespass and abduction.