Coimbatore’s Principal District Sessions Judge (in-charge) M.N. Senthilkumar, said that there was an age-old perception that torture was a favourite tool in the hands of officials, to extract information and confessions during investigations, or sometimes just to victimise oppressed sections of the society.
Mr. Senthilkumar was speaking at a function organised by the Coimbatore Bar Association to mark the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, on Tuesday. An updated booklet on human rights, was also released on the occasion.
Though it was emphasised that third-degree treatment was not warranted for fact-finding, the judge said that there were frequent headlines hitting the newspapers of the torture of persons suspected to have committed crimes, mostly petty offences and it was seen that even officials of high ranks believed that acts of torture could produce results.
Crimes definitely needed to be curbed, the judge said, but that did not mean that a person suspected of having committed an offence or charged for an offence could be dealt with in a manner that went against the law. In fact, a Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Police Department’s head said that the police must rely on scientific interrogation techniques instead of using force to extract confessions.