An inquiry report submitted by Sessions Judge Panchkula has confirmed the allegations that Dalit labour activist Shiv Kumar was in fact illegally detained by Haryana police and that they inflicted torture upon him while in custody. The report holds Additional SHO, Kundli police station, Shamsher Singh to be directly responsible for the torture.
As per LiveLaw, the inquiry Officer Deepak Gupta’ report states in the report that “allegations of illegal confinement and custodial torture of Shiv Kumar are duly proved on record”. The report was placed before the bench of Justice Jagmohan Bansal of Punjab and Haryana High Court. The counsel for the State sought time to go through the report and the next hearing is scheduled on January 27, 2023.
This inquiry report was submitted in the plea filed by Kumar’s father seeking seekingtransfer of three FIRs registered at Kundli police station to an independentagency and probe into the illegal detention and torture of his son. Accordingly, in March 2021, the court directed Gupta to conduct an inquiry during which 15 witnesses were examined.
Shiv Kumar, President of Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Kumar was arrested on January 16, 2021 a few days after the arrest of Nodeep Kaur, for allegedly violently protesting the harassment of factory workers in the Kundli Industrial Area in Sonipat on January 12. He was granted bail by a local Sonipat court in all three cases registered against him.
The inquiry report confirms Kumar’s allegations that he was picked up on January 16, 2021 and kept in illegal confinement and his arrest was shown only on January 23, 2021. He further stated that Kumar was medically examined “as many as five times between January 24 and February 02, 2021 but none of the doctors of the Government Hospital Sonepat or the doctor deputed in jail performed their duty and they apparently danced to the tune of the police officials”.
The report has also cast aspersions on the Judicial Magistrate before whom Kumar was presented for remand stating that had he seen Kumar in person, he could have noticed the injuries on his body.
This story was originally published in sabrangindia.in . Read the full story here