The Hindu : NHRC seeks explanation for custodial death in Gujarat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 29, 2002

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NHRC seeks explanation for custodial death in Gujarat

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 28. The National Human Rights Commission has asked the Chief Secretary of Gujarat and Ahmedabad's Commissioner of Police to explain within two weeks the circumstances leading to the death in police custody of Samirkhan Sarfrazkhan Pathan, who is alleged to have been part of a conspiracy to kill the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

Pathan was killed on October 22 with bullets to his chest and temple. Police maintain that he was "attempting to flee after snatching a police weapon''. There were seven policemen present, not one of them was injured. At the time of his death, 1.30 a.m., he had been taken to Usmanpura in Ahmedabad to reconstruct the scene of a crime committed in 1996 which had nothing to do with the alleged conspiracy to assassinate Mr. Advani and Mr. Modi.

Taking note of media reports of "the disturbing circumstances in which the killing took place'' the NHRC said that guidelines existed to ensure a fair inquiry into all such killings and to ensure compliance with the rule of law.

In order to establish whether Pathan's killing was "justified under the law and was not a fake encounter or death caused by custodial violence'' it was necessary for the Commission to "examine the death so reported in that light''. Deaths in custody and in fake encounters have been of particular concern to the Commission as their incidence has grown. In 1993, the Commission directed the State Governments to report all deaths in custody to the secretary- general of the Commission within 24 hours.

It said "failure to report promptly would give rise to the presumption that there was an attempt to suppress the incident.''

In 1995, the NHRC had again written to all the Chief Ministers directing them that post-mortem examinations of people who died in police custody be video-filmed since it was of the view "that a systematic attempt is made to suppress the truth and the (post-mortem) report is merely the police version of the incident.''

Dissatisfied with the information it was receiving, and the fact that "post-mortem reports appear to be doctored due to influence/pressure to protect the interest of the police/jail officials'' the Commission, in 1997, issued a model autopsy form to all State Governments.

In Samirkhan Pathan's case, the Commission has been officially informed about his death by the office of the joint commissioner of police. It has, however, not been sent the video-film of the post-mortem examination nor the report of the post-mortem.

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