the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has fined Mapusa Police Inspector Kapil Nayak and PSI Amin Naik for having paraded the mother who had abandoned her newborn baby before the media at the Mapusa police station ruling that the act by the police had violated the human rights of the mother.
While Nayak was ordered to pay Rs 30,000, Naik was to pay Rs 10,000.
The High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of a photograph that appeared in a local daily and had noted that the “photograph clearly conjures images of some erstwhile Maharajas or hunters posing with their trophy after a hunt.”
“Such acts amount to violation of human rights of the accused mother. Such acts also amount to violation of right to privacy and right to live with dignity guaranteed to the accused mother under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the High Court ruled.
The High Court also felt that the penalty of “censure” imposed upon the two cops was “totally inadequate and disproportionate in the facts and circumstances of the present case.
“Accordingly, we direct the State to consider imposition of a suitable penalty, proportionate to the role played (by Nayak) in the incident in
question,” the High Court ruled.
The High Court also directed the State government to, within a period of six weeks, finalise its guidelines for police officers in dealing with the media, which the State government has said it has already undertaken.
The two cops in question tendered apologies before the court for their conduct but sought to justify by claiming that that there was intense media coverage which was following up on the
case as also the news of the arrest of the couple.
“Members of the print and electronic media appeared at Mapusa Police Station and requested to have visual clips of the accused particularly to make the general public aware of the acts of the accused and to sensitize the public about the ill effects of abandoning the child, the request of media was acceded… photographing of the accused with the staff of the police was not with any malafide intention but to bonafidely to uplift the image of the police which was under public scrutiny in the above crime since considerable time had elapsed from the day of commission of the crime,” Nayak said in his affidavit.
However, the High Court took a dim view of such a justification.
“Their actions speak volumes of their insensitivity towards the protection of human rights, right to privacy and dignity of persons accused of crimes. It is well settled that merely because some persons are accused of crimes, they are not denuded of their fundamental rights or human rights. Merely because persons are accused of crimes, the police officials derive no authority to bruise their dignity or run roughshod over their human rights or fundamental rights, which is precisely what the police officials have done in the present case,” the High Court ruled.
“If the police officers, who are enjoined to protect the human rights and fundamental rights of citizens, contribute themselves to the violation of the same, then there is no question of upliftment of the image of the police. In fact, far from uplifting the image of the police department, they have contributed to exactly reverse,” the High Court said.
