Police wants to modify torture prevention act!

IT is disquieting to see that police has proposed change to some important safeguard provisions of Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013. A prominent Bengali daily, Prothom Alo, has reported that the police authority has sent a proposal to Home Ministry to bring alterations in the definition, investigation process and punishment provisions stipulated in the Act. 

Though our constitution expressly prohibits torture and act amounting to torture in custody or investigation, sufficient legal regime had been lacking earlier on. After long efforts by the rights groups and concerned citizens including politicians the above mentioned Act came into being in 2013 as a positive response to Bangladesh's ratification of Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) in 1998. It was widely acclaimed as the first concrete step on the part of the government towards addressing virtual impunity of police torture and custodial death.  

The Act, to some extent, chipped in the shield of Section 197 of the CrPC which guards against the culture of the impunity enjoyed by law enforcing agencies and made provisions of prosecuting the members of law enforcing agencies guilty of illegal acts. Now the police proposal seeks even to change prosecution option and reduce punishment provisions. 

Amid increasing incidence of crossfire and random arrest we are apprehensive of police authority's attempt at stripping away the safeguards for investigation, victim protection and compensation. The police in its proposal maintained that the Act in its present form creates hurdle for proper maintenance of law and order even threatens state security and stability. This approach is unacceptable. We urge the government to deal with the proposal by upholding the spirit in which the original Act was promulgated. It is imperative that state security as perceived by police need not militate against the human rights of citizens.