Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 14: Police is authorized by constitution and several land laws to protect the laws as well as Human Rights of common citizens but time and again, they themselves are found violating the laws by parading the accused before media as well as circulating their images.
According to law experts, our laws are based on the common law and equality of law and according to "Presumption of Innocence in the Evidence Act, a person is believed to be innocent till the guilt is proved against him. It is written in the law books but quite contrary to the law, time and again police officials as well as lower rung staff could be found parading the accused before the media along with the seizure of some unlawful material from them, the legal experts said.
On Tuesday again, police claimed to have arrested three alleged narcotic smugglers in Udhampur and recovered 200 grams of heroin from the possession of the accused. Throwing the rulebook into the dustbin, the police openly paraded the accused before the media glare and even without covering the faces, along with the alleged seized narcotics.
"By showing their faces as well as their names to the media and also widely circulating their photographs, the police is actually violating the law and has been portraying them as guilty, even before the court of law will prove their guilt", a law expert said, adding that apart from some lower rung officials of the department even the senior police officials were least bothered about the open violation of the laws and human rights.
"This is routine of police across the state and many a times, the guilt is not proved in the court of law but the society starts believing the person as guilty, even if court proved otherwise", the law expert said, adding that damage was already done to the reputation of the accused, which could not be undone by any effort but unprofessional officials have failed to mend their ways |
