PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, Dated: 12th June, 2015

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a show cause notice to the Government of Maharashtra why Rs.5 lakh should not be recommended to be paid as monetary relief to the next of kin of Manoj Shivnath Salve @ Manoj Sawant @ Aniket Sudhir Khichchi, aged 20 years, who died due to torture in custody of Vanrai Police Station, Goregaon (East), Mumbai Maharashtra on the 26th October, 2013.

Mr. Justice D. Murugesan, Member, NHRC, while giving six weeks time to the Chief Secretary of the State to respond has also asked the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Andheri (East), Mumbai to submit a report, within six weeks, on the final outcome of departmental enquiry pending against the four police personnel. They were reported to be suspended and arrested under Section 302/324/331/34 IPC under FIR No. 302/13 and a chargesheet was filed against them.

On the basis of material on record, the Commission found that at the outset, it appeared to be a case of death by police torture as the post mortem report revealed that there were 56 external injuries (multiple contusions, abrasions, fresh ante-mortem) on the body of the deceased.

The enquiry report submitted by CBCID revealed that the deceased was captured and beaten by public in connection with an attempted theft in the Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (East), Mumbai on the 26th October, 2013. Later, he was handed over to the police, who brought him to the Detection Room of Varnai Police Station, Goregaon, for interrogation. It was disclosed in the report that the accused, while in exclusive custody of four police personnel of Detection Squad, collapsed.

The Enquiring Magistrate, after comparing the Arrest Panchnama with Inquest Panchnama, disclosed that there were more injuries at the time of Inquest than the injuries mentioned in the Arrest Panchnama. This amply proved that more injuries were caused to the deceased while he was in the police custody. The conduct of police personnel depicts the magnitude of torture to which the accused was subjected. The nature of human rights violation, established in the case, is an exception, for that the State is held strictly liable.

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