The Supreme Court recently issued a notice to the state government in the alleged torture case of a 19-year-old boy who died while in judicial custody in Mumbai's central jail. Also, an interim order was issued to preserve CCTV footage and medical documents related to this alleged custodial death.
The deceased's mother, Zaitunbi Mohammad Salim Sheikh, has challenged the Bombay High Court's September 24 order in the Supreme Court through a special petition. During the hearing, a bench of Justice M. M. Sundaresh and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi issued a notice to the state government. The petition has been filed by the mother of the deceased child through lawyer Payoshi Roy. In it, an interim order was sought to preserve CCTV footage from Arthur Road Jail and Kalachowki Police Station from September 16 to 24, and other relevant documents including the deceased's medical records.
According to the petition, the petitioner's son was arrested on September 16 and was not injured at the time of arrest. However, on September 24, he was found dead in custody. The petition alleges that the jail authorities did not admit him to the hospital, but also falsely claimed that he had to be admitted to the hospital. In this case, the petitioner had approached the High Court and sought an interim order for an independent investigation into the matter, registration of a case and preservation of evidence. The High Court, however, issued notice to the respondents but refused to order the preservation of CCTV footage and medical documents, the petition also said.
The Supreme Court had suo motu filed a petition after taking cognizance of a newspaper article related to custodial deaths. Also, CCTV footage, station diary entries and medical documents were said to be important evidence in cases of custodial deaths. According to a related newspaper report, it was said that around 11 people had died in police custody in the last seven to eight months this year. In the backdrop of this petition, an interim order was sought in the cases in Mumbai.
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