Laws Governing Detention and Disappearances - Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab (CIIP)

D. Laws Governing Detention and Disappearances

After abducting Sikh victims, police kept the detainees in unofficial interrogation and torture centers, such as houses, schools, and police buildings.[44] Contrary to the Punjab Police Rules (1934) (PPR), the police did not report or acknowledge the detentions, much less file arrest reports.[45] In an interview with Physicians for Human Rights/Human Rights Watch (PHR/HRW), a police officer confirmed this process: “The arrest is not recorded in the daily log which includes the names of all criminals arrested on a given day. There is no official record of the arrest or detention.”[46] The unofficial police detention procedures violated Section 26.8 of the PPR, which requires the officer in charge of the police station to report all arrests without warrant to the district magistrate or any other magistrate designated by the district magistrate. Under Chapter 5, Section 57 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CCP), police must also produce detainees before a magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest.

Section 25.38 of the PPR outlines the procedure governing actions after an unidentified person dies in an encounter. The officer must

record a careful description of it [the body], giving all marks, peculiarities, deformities and distinctive features, . . . take the finger impressions and, in addition to taking all other reasonable steps to
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secure identification shall, if possible, have it photographed and, in cases where such action appears desirable, a description published in the Criminal Intelligence Gazette.

When any sudden or unnatural deaths occur in the jurisdiction of the local police station, Section 25.31(1) requires the officer in charge to inform the nearest magistrate and conduct an investigation as prescribed by Section 174 of the CCP. Section 174 obligates the officer to report on the apparent cause of death and any wounds, fractures, or marks of injury found on the body.

Despite these guidelines, the police used a variety of techniques to conceal cases of illegal arrest, detention, and execution. In direct contravention of Section 25 of the PPR, police failed to register complaints or acknowledge detention, influenced police inquiries by having police from the same branch conduct them, and falsified judicial records.[47] The police relied on medical doctors, executive magistrates, and other officials to help them perform perfunctory post mortems, cremate bodies in secret, and suppress evidence of custodial abuse.[48] Amnesty International received accounts of magistrates filling out reports falsely in favor of the police, in the face of overwhelming evidence of police torture.[49] The police also failed to produce detainees before the magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest.[50]