New Delhi October 26:
The Supreme Court set aside the acquittal of three Rajasthan policemen by the high court for bobbitizing a person in custody, and sent them to jail.
The brutality of the case, in which cops of the Sadar police station in Rajasthan's Barmer district chopped off the penis of an innocent man for allegedly being in an illicit relationship with the wife of a cop's relative, angered the Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and T S Thakur. Some uniformed personnel are still suffering from a "colonial mindset", said the judges, seen to be a reference to the cops' apparent certainty that they could get away with the savagery.
The main accused, constable Kishore Singh, who is said to have used a barber's razor to chop off the organ of the victim in 1994, got the maximum punishment — five years in jail and a fine of Rs 50,000. ASI Sumer Dan, who had caught hold of the victim was sentenced to three years in jail and asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. SHO Sohan Singh, in whose presence the crime happened inside the police station, was sent to jail for six months and fined Rs 10,000. The fine amount would be paid to the victim as compensation, the SC directed.
Justice Katju, writing the judgment for the Bench, said policemen who commit criminal acts deserve harsher punishment than others "because it is the duty of the policemen to protect the people and not to break the law themselves". Referring to a 1997 judgment, the Bench said the apex court had 13 years ago banned third-degree methods in police stations. "But it is well known that third-degree methods are still widely used in many of our police stations, as this case reveals," it said.
The Supreme Court set aside the acquittal of three Rajasthan policemen by the high court for bobbitizing a person in custody, and sent them to jail.
The brutality of the case, in which cops of the Sadar police station in Rajasthan's Barmer district chopped off the penis of an innocent man for allegedly being in an illicit relationship with the wife of a cop's relative, angered the Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and T S Thakur. Some uniformed personnel are still suffering from a "colonial mindset", said the judges, seen to be a reference to the cops' apparent certainty that they could get away with the savagery.
The main accused, constable Kishore Singh, who is said to have used a barber's razor to chop off the organ of the victim in 1994, got the maximum punishment — five years in jail and a fine of Rs 50,000. ASI Sumer Dan, who had caught hold of the victim was sentenced to three years in jail and asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. SHO Sohan Singh, in whose presence the crime happened inside the police station, was sent to jail for six months and fined Rs 10,000. The fine amount would be paid to the victim as compensation, the SC directed.
Justice Katju, writing the judgment for the Bench, said policemen who commit criminal acts deserve harsher punishment than others "because it is the duty of the policemen to protect the people and not to break the law themselves". Referring to a 1997 judgment, the Bench said the apex court had 13 years ago banned third-degree methods in police stations. "But it is well known that third-degree methods are still widely used in many of our police stations, as this case reveals," it said.
