The Supreme Court on Thursday reprimanded the Delhi police and the Uttar Pradesh government, saying, “Even an animal will not do what police officers are doing every day in different parts of the country”. The apex court’s rebuke came in the wake of the physical assault by policemen of women protesting against the rape of a five-year-old girl in the national capital.
A bench headed by Justice G.S. Singhvi directed the Delhi police commissioner to file an affidavit explaining why a young girl protester was slapped by a senior Delhi police officer here and sought from the UP chief secretary an affidavit on the brutal assault of a 65-year-old woman protester by policemen in Aligarh.
The bench directed the chief secretaries of Rajasthan, Haryana, UP, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa to file affidavits stating whether they have set up state security commissions in pursuance of its 2006 direction for police reforms. The court said the affidavits would accompany the details of the number of SSC meetings held since its constitution and the minutes of these meetings. The bench said it would also consider, at the next hearing, the question of high court Chief Justices monitoring the functioning of the SSCs.
“Where has your sense gone? How can police officers beat an unarmed lady,” the bench said, describing incidents of police brutality as an “insult to the country”. The apex court said it would take strong exception to incidents of police brutality and would go beyond norms in dealing with police personnel involved in such incidents.