The government of Maharashtra on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court that it has given sanction for prosecution of eight policemen in the custodial death of a youth at Wadala Railway Police Station. The government also informed the high court that it will install CCTVs in 25 police stations approximately in a month’s time as part of a pilot project.
Additional Public Prosecutor Mankhuvar Deshmukh informed the division bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and Revati Mohite-Dere that the state government had directed the state CID
to submit a monthly report on custodial deaths to the judicial registrar of Bombay high court. The reports would have columns mentioning names, addresses of police stations, FIR lodge dates and other relevant information.
The court was informed that the work of installing CCTVs in 25 police stations in Mumbai had been awarded to a company during bidding on Tuesday and this company was expected to complete the work within one month. This would be implemented in other police stations as well.
The high court was hearing a bunch of petitions, including a PIL on increasing number of custodial death cases in the state.
Advocate Deshmukh submitted a report on custodial deaths to the court, which said that there were 17 cases of custodial death in Maharashtra in 2014 and 14 in 2015 while no case of custodial death was registered in January this year.
The court on Wednesday asked the government to set up a committee of three members headed by the commissioner of police to study and find a solution to custodial deaths. The court also directed the state to implement all its guidelines to avoid custodial deaths, with installing CCTV cameras being just one part of these guidelines.
The petitions will be heard on April 11.
