By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Peoples Human Rights Council (MPHRC) has expressed concern over the rising incidents of death in police lock-up while terming such incidences as ‘disturbing and pathetic’ since such unfortunate death has caused irreparable damage to the police dignity.
“The recent incidents of custodial death whether natural, accidental or suicidal, happen mainly because of the gross negligence and preventive measures on the part of the police officials,” MPHRC Secretary General, S Shemborlang Rynjah said in a statement issued here on Sunday.
While it is the duty bound of the Government to ensure that such incidents is not repeated in the near future, the district administrations must make sure that proper post mortem should be carried out since the fate of the case would depend entirely on the observations recorded and the opinion given by the doctor in the post-mortem report, Rynjah asserted.
“If post-mortem examination is not thoroughly done or manipulated to suit vested interests, then the offender cannot be brought to book and this would result in travesty of justice and serious violation of human rights in custody would go on with impunity,” he added.
The MPHRC have called upon the government to ensure that prompt communication of incidents of custodial deaths is reported to the National Human Rights Commission stating that failure to report promptly would give rise to presumption that there was an attempt to suppress the incident.
