The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday took suo-motu cognizance of the case, related to the death of a 16-year-old minor who died allegedly due to severe torture in police custody in Bundu, converting it into a Public Interest litigation (PIl) and directed the Chief Secretary to pay Rs1 lakh as compensation to the deceased father.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice S Chandrasekhar took cognizance on the basis of 31 postcards received by the Chief Justice and referring to the news items published in daily newspapers on July 9, 2016.
The Chief Justice while directing the police officials to adhere to the norms of Juvenile Justice Act also observed that there need to be organised more training programmes and seminars for them to create awareness about the Act.
The court also directed the Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi to submit a detailed report to the court on or before July 27, 2016 positively incorporating all the steps taken by the administration to alleviate the sufferings of family members of the minor boy who died due to the inhuman torture subjected by police.
“The Deputy Commissioner should also see as to whether provisions of Section 60-A of the CrPC (No arrest shall be made except in accordance with the provisions of this Code or any other law for the time being in force providing for arrest.) has been adhered or not,” the court observed. The State Government has also been directed to immediately pay Rs1 lakh as compensation to the father of the deceased and file compliance report through the Chief Secretary.
Family members alleged that the policemen picked up Rupesh from a shop at Adarshnagar in Bundu, some 30 km from the state capital on July 7 following orders from then SDPO Pawan Kumar and tortured him to extract information about Maoists. As Rupesh had no idea about the Maoists, he could not reveal any information to the police. Not believing his words, they tortured him badly leading to his death.
Police, on the other hand, claimed that Rupesh was an arms supplier, who provided weapons and ammunition to rebel outfits and criminal gangs. later, he died in the night allegedly due to torture in police custody. later, the state government ordered a CID probe into the case and removed SDPO Pawan Kumar. CID has already started probe into the case.