Lower level cops need rights training: Expert

Sensitising grassroots level police personnel in Human Rights is critical to check rights violations, B N Chattoraj, Director of Institute of Criminology, at an international workshop on human rights here on Thursday.

“I have noticed that the top level police officers are aware of Human Rights while dealing with undertrials and accused, but the grass root level police personnel who regularly interact with them (undertrials) are totally untrained in understanding human rights,” Chattoraj said.

Citing instances of gross human rights violations taking place in Indian jails, Chattoraj said the underprivileged, who are more prone to be picked up by police after the occurrence of an offence need to be educated on their rights.

“Right to silence is a very important clause of human rights which the poor don’t know about and the police blatantly violates it through ways like third degree torture. Interrogation of the accused by the police has to be in front of his lawyer or a family member. A murder case has to be solved within three months and theft case within 25 days, and within that period the suspect should should be convicted or freed. But there are innumerable cases of people languishing in jails for years,” he added.

According to Chattoraj, Tihar Jail in the city is a showcase of rights violations., On the rights of the juveniles, he said many minors are treated par with elders as they poor don’t have certificates to prove their age, and hence some mechanism or method should be adopted to determine a person’s age .