National Crime Records Bureau report on Cases on police

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released data on cases were registered against the police.

Details:

As many as 35,831 cases were registered against the police with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in 2015-16 only 94 first information reports were registered in 2015.
Cases against the police involve illegal detentions, extortion, torture, fake encounters and others. The numbers do not include deaths in police custody, for which 153 cases were registered with the NHRC.

• In seven of the 10 years from 2006 to 2015, not a single policeman was convicted of human rights violations. 58 policemen (54 from Chhattisgarh) were convicted in 2009; 233 (232 from Delhi) in 2011; and 3 in 2014.
• NCRB data from 2006 to 2015 show that on an average, 120 FIRs are filed against the police for rights violations.
• From 2012 to 2015, cases with the NHRC against the police have always been more than 30,000, constituting around 30 per cent of all the cases it receives.

Why this much gap?

There is unwillingness among the police to file an FIR against one of their own. In the absence of a body similar to the Independent Police Complaints Commission as in the United Kingdom or the Independent Police Investigative Directorate in South Africa, allegations of human rights violations by the police in India are investigated by the police themselves.

NHRC role on Investigation:

The NHRC’s investigative unit draws its members from the State police forces who are on deputation. The unit does not have the powers for active investigation: that is to say, it cannot collect or preserve physical evidence itself but has to ask the local police for it.

• Wherever an offence has been made out after an inquiry, the NHRC, depending on the nature of the case, recommends lawful action, which may include punitive measures against the guilty and monetary relief to the victim.