New Delhi, Oct 15 The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that a 17-year-old boy was tortured in police custody at the Gandhigram Police Station in Gujarat’s Rajkot district.
The incident came to light more than a month later, on October 6, after a video of the torture surfaced on social media.
According to the press report, carried on October 7, in the video, a police officer can be seen pulling hair from the boy’s scalp while other officials were laughing.
The boy was taken into custody on the night of September 1 in connection with a stabbing incident that had occurred a day earlier. The minor and his associates were detained and later presented before a juvenile court, which remanded him to a juvenile detention centre.
He was released on bail about two weeks later.
Taking note of the incident, the NHRC observed that the contents of the report, if true, raise serious concerns of human rights violations of the boy.
The apex human rights body has issued notices to the Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP), seeking a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.
Established under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the NHRC, an autonomous statutory body, is an embodiment of India's concern for the promotion and protection of human rights.
Its primary role is to protect and promote human rights, defined as the rights relating to life, liberty, equality, and dignity of individuals guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in international covenants and enforceable by courts in India. The apex human rights body has the power to take suo motu (on its own motion) action based on media reports, public knowledge or other sources, without receiving a formal complaint of human rights violations.
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