india

Updated: Nov 06, 2019 09:33 IST

The Bombay High Court at Goa fined two cops for parading an accused woman and posing with her before the media and barred such practice in future. Goa government and its Director General of Police were also told on Tuesday to ensure the order is implemented.

The court said the policemen acted like “some erstwhile Maharajas or hunters posing with their trophy after a hunt” and reminded the men in Khaki that even a criminal had the right to dignity under the fundamental and human rights guaranteed by the constitution.

The High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of a photograph of a woman kneeling before two cops, published in news dailies in August this year, and decreed it to be a “violation of the right to privacy and right to dignity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”

The police had paraded a couple before the media after their arrest from the north Goa town of Mapusa allegedly for abandoning their newborn male child. The couple claimed they could not afford to raise him.

The cops in question -- Mapusa Police Inspector Kapil Nayak and Police Sub-Inspector Amin Naik—were pulled up along with the higher ups and fined Rs 40,000. The fine amount will be given to the aggrieved woman as compensation.

“Merely because persons are accused of crimes, the police officials derive no authority to bruise their dignity or run roughshod over their human rights or fundamental rights, which is precisely what the police officials have done in the present case,” the High Court’s division bench of Justices M S Sonak and Nutan Sardesai ruled.

The court went on say that the erring cops believed they had the authority to pronounce the guilt and parade the accused before the media as if they were “displaying some trophies”.