Responsible For Abduction, Illegal Detention & Death- Delhi HC While Upholding Conviction Of Police Officers In Custodial Death Case

The Delhi High Court Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal has upheld an order of the Trial Court, which sentenced 5 policemen to 10 years of imprisonment for a custodial death.

In that context, it was said that "What had happened to the victim after his arrest / abduction by the accused persons was within the special knowledge of the accused persons and having not provided believable explanation, the court was right in drawing the presumption that the police was responsible for his abduction, illegal detention and death."

Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal, among others, appeared for the convicted policemen. Additional Public Prosecutor Prithu Garg appeared for the State.

In this case, an appeal was filed against a conviction order passed by the District Court, wherein a set of police officers were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. The deceased in this case was a 26-year-old man, who policemen had picked up in civil dress, and brought to the police station in their private vehicle, as he was allegedly wanted for an investigation in a robbery case.

An investigation concluded that the police personnel had belted atrocities on the deceased, and he subsequently died by suicide due to physical and mental stress.

The case had to be transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, as the Supreme Court ruled that a free and fair trial would not be possible in the State of Uttar Pradesh since the accused were members of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The High Court observed that "discrepancies are glaring and can only underscore the case of the prosecution that all police personnel present at that night belonging to PS Sector-20 (Noida) were somehow stretching themselves hard to disclaim their presence at the time post lodging of Sonu by the accused police team. It is, therefore, completely clear that conduct of all these police officials refusing to acknowledge their presence after the lodging of Sonu or around that time, leads to a conclusion that the situation in the PS at that time was not fine."

Referring to the case of Prithipal Singh vs State of Punjab, the Court held that what had happened to the deceased after his arrest/abduction by the accused persons was within the special knowledge of the accused persons and had not provided a believable explanation, and that the Court was right in drawing the presumption that the police was responsible for his abduction, illegal detention and death.

Further, the Court clarified that "Considering that there is no evidence on record to prove that the accused police officers caused injuries to Sonu with an intention that in all likelihood death will ensure, thereby causing the murder of the deceased, it would be difficult to reach a conclusion that the accused police officers would be guilty of offence punishable under Section 302 IPC. The said sequence of events and evidence on record suggest that the deceased was subjected to custodial torture with the knowledge that it was likely to cause death of the deceased but without any intention to cause the death".

Cause Title: Pradeep Kumar v. State of UP [Neutral Citation No. 2023:DHC:4293]

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