JAMMU: Viral videos of mobs and even police parading and humiliating suspected thieves, instead of following standard procedures, have evoked a sharp reaction, with many questioning such acts as ‘illegal’ and ‘inhuman.’
Despite the lack of legality, these videos have found some cheerleaders as well.
Recently a viral video from Jammu surfaced. A suspected thief with his hands tied behind his back was stripped half-naked, garlanded with shoes, and hauled on the bonnet of the police vehicle by the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel outside Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC) in Bakshi Nagar.
Station House Officer (SHO) Bakshi Nagar, Azad Manhas, not only participated in but actively supervised this public humiliation while locals and media officials recorded this spectacle.
Videos and photographs that subsequently appeared on social media platforms showed Manhas brandishing his baton near the accused's face while he was being paraded. The arrest was announced through a public address system by the Police, turning the incident into a public spectacle.
The suspect was arrested after public humiliation. He was not questioned, and no report was filed before the ‘punishment’. Some onlookers can be seen cheering and raising slogans in support of the police officer's actions. However, there was widespread outrage over the police resorting to what they called ‘mob violence’.
Following criticism of the incidents, senior police officials took notice of the matter.
According to an order circulated by the police, “To ascertain facts, a preliminary inquiry is hereby ordered and entrusted to SDPO City North, Jammu, who will inquire into the matter and submit his findings to this office within weeks’ time positively.”
The order also stated that “acts on the part of police personnel are unprofessional, unbecoming of members of a disciplined organization, and call for stern departmental action against them.”
Despite this action, the SHO under whose command this incident happened remains unrepentant.
Manhas defended his actions and said that the thief was intoxicated and is part of the gang they arrested. His name was not divulged, but he was identified as a ‘Kashmiri.’
“He had stolen Rs 40,000 (Forty thousand) from a man’s pocket and was successful in escaping, but the man whose money was stolen recognized him again in the Bakshi Nagar market and caught him after a chase. The suspect even stabbed him and injured him with a knife. Finally, he was caught with the help of the police patrolling party,” the SHO said in an interview.
Though a preliminary inquiry has been ordered, no action has been taken against the SHO so far.
Earlier Precedent
The incident comes close on the heels of another incident in Jammu’s busy Link Road.
On April 11, a suspected thief was paraded semi-naked with his head shaved and face blackened after he was reportedly caught red-handed by the locals while snatching earrings from a lady in Link Road.
According to reports, he was thrashed on the spot, following which his head was shaved and his face was blackened by the locals, who paraded him till Police Station Pacca Danga, where he was arrested.
Police said that a case has been registered in the incident and the matter is being investigated.
Nearly three months later, no further progress has been made.
Public Outrage
Both incidents have evoked sharp criticism, especially the recent one where the cops are seen as blurring the lines between legality and mob justice, some describing it as having uncanny resemblance with a Talibanic culture.
Many, cutting across identities, took to social media to condemn the incident.
“Jammu Kashmir Police is now behaving like Taliban police, tying the accused to the bonnet of a jeep with a garland of shoes and parading them on the streets,” posted Manu, an X user.
Nasir Khuehami, a student activist also posted on X, “Police are not mobs. They are the custodians of the law. The duty of an SHO is to investigate, not adjudicate to uphold justice, not to dispense punishment through public spectacle. Such crude displays of "instant justice" erode public trust, delegitimize the institution, and push our democracy one step closer to the abyss of lawlessness.”
Senior journalist and author, Nayeema Mehjoor, calling it a ‘pathetic situation’. “Should we close all law enforcement offices now if we have to do crowd justice?” she wrote.
Arvind Gupta, the BJP MLA representing Bakshi Nagar Jammu, said, “I don’t appreciate what police did, everyone here has become Singham and make reels instead the accused should be educated and given moral support.”
The Cheer-leaders
However, Yudhvir Sethi, another BJP legislator, notwithstanding the lack of legality of the police actions, sought to praise them.
“I stand with the police of Jammu and Kashmir, such thieves should be shoe garlanded in on streets, they (thieves) have no right to talk about the human rights violation,” he said in an interview.
Members of the Hindu right-wing outfit Shiv Sena Dogra Front went a step further and staged a protest in Jammu expressing solidarity with the Station House Officer (SHO) of Bakshi Nagar.
The demonstrators also appealed to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jammu to withdraw the ongoing inquiry against the officer.
Several members of the media appeared to be on this side of the divide. The videos that are in circulation show the shirtless suspect with hands tied behind, surrounded by a huge crowd and few police officials, as reporters thrust their mikes at the visibly distraught man forced to sit on the front of the police vehicle.
Legal Opinion
Accused can file case for damages or criminal defamation. He can also approach the constitutional court against the police. Supreme Court has framed guideline in D K Basu v. State of Bengal and other cases as to how accused is to be treated. Those guidelines have been held in breach, and it amounts to contempt of court.
The public humiliation of a person, whatever he is accused of, is a violation of the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, such as Section 131 (criminal force) and Section 351(2) (criminal intimidation), say legal practitioners.
It is also a violation of Article 21 of the Indian constitution that guarantees right to life and dignity.
The person publicly humiliated can thus seek judicial remedies. The Supreme Court laid its guidelines in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1997) judgment which establishes fundamental procedural safeguards that protect the dignity and rights of individuals in police custody.
The Supreme Court's guidelines in this landmark case specifically prohibit any form of torture, humiliation, or degrading treatment of accused persons, which directly applies to incidents where police engage in public shaming tactics such as parading suspects, forcing public confessions, or exposing them to media before formal charges.
Such violations provide grounds for the accused to seek legal remedies including damages for violation of fundamental rights, criminal defamation charges against the officers involved, and direct constitutional remedies through writ petitions in higher courts, making this judgment a crucial legal foundation for protecting individuals from pre-arrest police misconduct and public humiliation.
Advocate Asif Wani, a high court practitioner says, “It (the incident of Police parading a suspected thief) violates constitutional as well as the procedural law—Currently, there is no law in India or anywhere in the world that permits mob justice, punishment can be awarded only by a procedure provided under law”.
Wani further added “Even if the accused admits his crime before police. He still must undergo the trial and must be convicted or acquitted by following due procedure provided under CrPC, now Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Confession before police is no confession.”
“Public shaming can find its tracing only in medieval times,” he said and elaborated with an example of a scene of Game of Thrones and said, “Even Cersei’s Walk of atonement was ordered by the God of Seven after she confessed her crime.”
The legal expert cautioned against the mob mentality both within the police and the citizens.
“Mainstream media and social media must be responsible. Accused isn’t a criminal. An accused is innocent until proven guilty,” Wani said.
“Nobody has the right to put somebody’s misery to public spectacle. Nobody has the right to refer to him as a ‘thief’. Even convicts have the right to be treated with human dignity,” he added.
Bonnet for human shame
Such arguments against mob violence and public humiliation have been in the public domain for quite some time.
The latest Bakshi Nagar incident bears an uncanny resemblance with another incident in 2017 for the use of Gypsy car bonnets, though for a different reason.
In April 2017, an army officer, Major Leetul Gogoi, tied a man on the bonnet of a Gypsy, paraded him through several villages for over six hours, while using him as a human shield to evade stone pelting by local rebels in Budgam district of Kashmir.
The incident was widely condemned and the Amnesty International described it as “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture”.
Following what became global outrage, the Indian government ordered a probe but senior Army officials defended the action of Major Gogoi. Gen Bipin Rawat, India’s then chief of army staff, said his “soldiers were fighting a non-traditional war in Kashmir that required innovations”.
While the inquiry report was never made public, Gogoi was given a commendation medal for his “sustained efforts in counter insurgency operations” on May 22, 2017.
Perhaps, taking cue from the Kashmir experiment, Israeli soldiers in Occupied West Bank of Palestine replicated it in 2023. Mujahed Abadi, a Palestinian shopkeeper was forcefully lied on a hot burning bonnet of the military vehicle and was prided for almost 20 minutes.
The same method appears to have returned to Jammu and Kashmir, though for a different reason—a ‘suspect’ paraded to humiliate, not for being turned into a human shield.
Have you liked the news article?