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| A case of alleged police atrocity: Third-degree torture leaves youth "paralysed" in both arms | | Doctors say chances of recovery are bleak as muscles are badly wounded, nerves are "dead" | |  Bharat Bhushan
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 14: In an alleged case of police atrocity, third-degree torture by cops has left a goldsmith paralysed in both arms. The cruelest method was inflicted upon him at Janipura police station here so that "he confesses to a crime he had not at all committed".
Vishal (20) was picked up from his shop allegedly by Inspector Ravinder Parihar, SHO of Janipura PS, on April 23 last on the suspicion that he was hand-in-glove with a gang of chain snatchers and had purchased a gold chain from them.In the lock-up, both his hands were tied behind his back and he was hanged upside down from the ceiling fan hook. For five hours, he was thrashed, humiliated and beaten in the neck area in a most inhuman manner. All this left him handicapped.
Now, if he fails to recover, as some doctors suspect, he would not be able to use both arms in his lifetime again.Due to severe internal injuries, paralysis has affected his arms which hang from shoulders as if there is no life left in them. For the past nearly two months now, he is fed by his mother Sushma Rani (50). To pass urine and stool, he cannot unzip his trousers. His two younger brothers help him whenever he desires to attend the call of nature.The incident has reduced his mother to a mental wreck. Tears roll down her cheeks in battalions when she looks at her son. She curses the men in khaki for making him handicapped and prays to god to do justice by punishing them.
Vishal alleged that police wanted to implicate him in a false case and extract confession from him. "However, when they realised I was not guilty, they did not register any case against me," he said.
Unlike Vishal, many innocent people must have confessed to crimes they have not at all committed, unable to bear the torture and pain. Many innocents have lost their lives in police lock-ups during the 3rd degree torture.
Even if we go by the police logic that criminals only sing under torture and they rightly deserve it, what about the corrupt police officers who torture innocents, side by criminals by preparing weak prosecution cases and delaying probes to allow the gradual destruction of evidence.
In the Vishal's case too, police admitted that he was innocent and not involved in the crime for which he was picked up.
At the very outset, when he was bundled into the Janipura PS lock-up on April 23, Vishal was first asked to confess his links with chain snatchers. However, when he refused, he was made to undergo the worst police torture.It has been seen that police -- working under various pressures and stresses -- use 3rd degree methods on innocents to cover-up their own inefficiency and when they lack professional competence.They could also do so to frame innocents while they are biased towards the rich and the powerful.The thana police also use third degree when higher-ups want quick results.
Vishal said when the SHO realised that he was innocent, he asked cops to bring him down the hook. "I now sat in the chair in munshi's room and was unable to move my arms," he added.
However, in a bid to make him feel that they cared for him, police now started the damage control exercise. Munshi summoned a massager who applied balm on his arms and shoulder muscles. "However, when there was no improvement, the SHO ordered to keep me in the lock-up till I recovered. Two youth, who too were in the lock-up, massaged me for two days, but my limbs did not respond," he said."I was set free on April 26, with no case registered against me,"he said.
Though police as usual denied their role in the incident, Parihar has so far given him Rs 13,000 for his treatment, according to Vishal.But he has been strictly asked by him not to speak to media about the incident and keep it a secret if he wants him to spend more money on him.Police are also alleged to have asked him not to hire a lawyer, or move the high court on his own against them. Instructions were also allegedly given to him to remain away from house from morning to evening and keep his mobile phone on switch-off mode to avoid visiting journalists and HR activists, if any.
Cops -- Sadiq and Balbir -- are said to have been put on the job of keeping a watch on his house. Both allegedly visit his house six to seven times a day to make sure that he does not stay home.
He is the sole bread earner of his family. After his father Surinder's death about a decade ago, the responsibily of running the family had fallen on his small shoulders. He was 10 then and worked in a jewellery shop for several years before opening his own shop near his residence at Janipura some time back.Younger brothers -- Sagar and Rajat -- study in class 10th and 8th respectively. As he has not worked in the shop since April, their school fee is yet to be paid. Since there is no chance of his immediate recovery, one of them might stop going to school to become a new bread earner in the family.
After police set him free on April 26, his family took him to the emergency wing of GMC hospital where the on-duty doctor wrote in his report: "Inability to use and move both upper limbs, ie from shoulder to hand."
When there was no improvement in his condition, police on May 2 took him to a doctor in a private hospital on B C Road, who referred him to a physiotherapist and also advised him to get examined by a neurologist.
On the same day, he was taken by police to a neurologist of Batra hospital, who said there was numbness in his arms. He was also got examined at a neuro centre on Canal Road.
Not satisfied with the treatment here, police took him to Dhillon MRI Scan Centre at Amritsar. Cops -- Sadiq and Balbir -- had accompanied him there.
In his opinion report, a doctor at the centre wrote: "Perispinous muscular contusions in the lower cervical and the upper dorsal region with suspicion of injury to the post ganglionic fibres."When this report was shown to a senior orthopaedician at the GMC hospital, he said Vishal had suffered severe spine and muscle injuries and his nerves were almost "dead". "This happens due to beating in the neck area," he added.
Vishal was scared of police and doubted that they might again make an attempt to implicate him in some false case as he had approached media against their wish. To avoid such a situation, he wanted to move high court."I do not have money to hire an advocate. The moment somone lends me some money, I will move high court against police," Vishal said.The family hoped to get justice only from the court, or chief minister Omar Abdullah, who had already ordered a probe into the incident. |
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