Rights commission asks Panchkula DCP to appear in person

The Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) has directed Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Panchkula, Srishty Gupta, to appear in person along with a reply or record about the illegal custody of Parvesh Sharma, an 18-year-old youth from Pinjore.

Sharma is facing an arms case. Earlier, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate Court of Abhimanyu Rajput in Kalka had, on July 16, termed the re-arrest of Sharma — despite him being on bail — as illegal. The public prosecutor had also submitted in the court that he could not defend the act and misconduct of the investigating officer. Sharma's medical examination later proved that he was also subjected to physical assault.

In the previous hearing before the HHRC, DCP (Crime and Traffic) Manpreet Singh Sudan had submitted a report where allegations of illegal custody were largely denied.

Sharma's counsel, Deepanshu Bansal, submitted his objections to the report.

During the hearing on August 6, audio conversations between Bansal and Srishty Gupta were presented. Bansal has levelled allegations against Gupta regarding giving wrong information about the revocation of bail orders by the Sessions Judge. He further alleged that the DCP(Crime and Traffic), who was appointed as an inquiry officer, did not inquire into the matter impartially, and partial findings were given in favour of the Panchkula DCP.

HHRC member Deep Bhatia, in his order dated August 6, observed that the record of the case "primarily indicates towards many flaws in handling the present matter by the police, where allegations of violations of the basic human rights of a young person in illegal custody have been made, who was not having any previous criminal record.” He added that there was a “serious suspicion that it was just to torture and entangle him only on the directions of some political bosses.”

Meanwhile, SI Yadwinder Singh, who was investigating the case against Sharma, told the commission that the forensic report was yet to be received and submitted DDR copies and CCTV footage of Pinjore Police Station.

“The commission also finds that there is no Daily Diary Report of July 15 (the day of re-arrest of Sharma) in the record produced by the Investigating Officer, S.I. Yadwinder, today in order to support their version in the present case. Further, the commission also finds that the notice which was served upon Parvesh Sharma was with older Sections, and upon asking the same, the excuse in this regard made by the Investigating Officer was that it was merely a clerical mistake… but the commission cannot accept this lame excuse without any strong ground or documents,” said the order.

The next date of hearing is August 20.