While questioning the existence of the National Human Rights Commission after noting that it had closed the case of custodial death purely on the version given by the police, the Allahabad High Court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to secure the video recordings of the scene of occurrence. The High Court also expressed concern over the fact that the videographic & photographic evidences were not made available to the Court even after 16 years.

The High Court was considering a PIL filed in the year 2010 relating to the custodial death of a handicapped citizen, Nahar Singh.

The Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Nandan and Justice Atul Sreedharan held, “In fact, the NHRC has not recorded the statement of any witness or a person who may have had knowledge about the case and neither has the NHRC sought the assistance of the State Human Rights Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "SHRC") to send its team to record the statement of the witnesses and forward the same to the NHRC. Instead, the report of the NHRC has simply accepted the reports given by the SDM and the police as gospel truth without appreciating that in a case of custodial death, the police and the State administration are the most interested parties in order to hush up the crime and pass the same off as a suicide. If this is all that the NHRC was required to do and close the case of custodial death purely on the version given by the police which is an interested party, without seeking independent evidence from neutral witnesses within the family of the deceased, calls into question the very existence of the NHRC.”

“As repeated attempts by this Court to secure the videography relevant in this case, which was done almost sixteen years ago have borne no fruit and with the State and the police being evasive in their response, this Court directs the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through its ACB office at Ghaziabad, to secure those video recordings within a period of sixty days from the date of this order. While doing so, it is requested that there is no necessity to register an FIR at this stage as it would be acting under the directions of this Court. After securing the same, they shall produce it before this Court on the next date of hearing", it ordered.

Factual Background

Nahar Singh was a physically handicapped person who died in police custody on September 9, 2009. He was found hanging in the urinal part of the lockup. He was said to have used his belt to hang himself.

Reasoning

The Bench explained that a lock-up within a police station is not a secluded place within which the activity cannot be seen. It is an area where persons are held temporarily or on police remand, before they are sent to jail on judicial remand and it is almost an impossibility for anyone to do any activity within the urinal inside the lock up, unknown to the personnel in the police station, as they are under constant vigil. “Therefore, how a person with forty percent handicap could hang himself, within the confines of the lock up does not prima facie gel with the official version of the police and the State”, it added.

Holding that the subject matter of the PIL was such that it warranted urgency, the Bench stated, “A case of this nature ought to have been concluded within three months from the date of its first listing with sustained pressure on the State to produce the videography and had it been so done, the probability of this Court having secured access to the videography was much higher than it is today. The procedural delay of sixteen years in this case has given an opportunity to the police and the State to cover its tracks in a manner that the truth remains obscured. The attempts by this Court to now lay its hands on the videographic evidence gets obfuscated on account of this delay.”

The continued attempts by the Court to secure the videography were on account of an observation in the postmortem report, which, while recording the external ante-mortem injuries, noted the presence of a knot mark/knot impression on the right side behind the ear. “This raises a reasonable suspicion if the deceased Nahar Singh was first strangulated within the police station and then to escape charges of custodial death or murder, his body was strung up in the urinal side inside the lockup by the police personnel. The only way the same can be ascertained is by viewing the videography of the SOO (which would reveal whether the body of the deceased was in a partial hanging position or a complete hanging position and whether there were marks on his body revealed in the postmortem report but not recorded by the doctor under duress of the police)”, it stated.

The Bench highlighted how the Court, Police /State and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) failed in the endeavour of unearthing the truth. The Bench thus directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through its ACB office at Ghaziabad, to secure the video recordings within a period of sixty days.

The matter has now been listed on August 10, 2026.

Cause Title: Association For Advocacy And Legal Initiatives Lko. v. State Of U.P. Thru. Sec. Home Lko. And Others (PIL No.: 16563 of 2010)

Appearance

Appellant: Advocates Ankur Sharma, Ravi Kiran Jain

Respondent: Chief Standing Counsel, Advocate M.R.Chauhan

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