BOOK REVIEW
By
Randeep
Wadehra
In custody
By Nitya Ramakrishnan
Sage. Pages:
xlix + 451. Price: Rs. 995/-
In recorded
history, sovereigns and states have been resorting to torture either to mete
out punishment or to compel a person to confess to a crime or give evidence in
a judicial proceeding. This has been happening even when there is irrefutable
evidence that torture is not effective in getting at the truth. When subjected
to torture in police custody, a person invariably admits to even those crimes
which he may not have committed. Torture has a long history of use and abuse.
In ancient Athens and Rome, slaves were frequently subjected to torture. In
fact, in the Roman Empire, even free men were tortured to obtain evidence of
the crime of laesa majestas (“injured majesty”, or crime against a sovereign
power). In 1252, Pope Innocent IV, issued a decree whereby the people accused
of heresy could be tortured to obtain their confessions. France legalized the
use of torture in the 13th century, and ultimately it became part of the legal
system of every European nation except Sweden and England. However, England was
not completely free of this practice, but torture was used only by exercise of
the royal prerogative. It would be pertinent to mention here that the East
India Company used to apply torture to extract rent etc from the ryots, but
employed “native” officials to do this dirty work. In the American colonies,
torture was illegal. In 1816, however, a papal edict banned torture in Roman
Catholic countries.
In the 20th
century, the use of torture was common in various European countries,
especially where communist, fascist and National Socialist governments were in
power. In fact, torture went much beyond being physical. Communist governments
resorted to brainwashing, a form of psychological torture, which caused mental
disorientation by such methods as forcing a prisoner to stay awake for days. In
recent times, complaints about the use of physical and psychological torture
have emanated from different countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Nevertheless,
torture is expressly illegal in most countries following the signing of the
‘United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment’ or CAT in short.
This tome focuses
on custodial torture in Subcontinental countries comprising India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Although these countries have
inherited, or have been influenced, by the British legal framework, they have
had different approaches to the issue. For example, India has not yet ratified
CAT even when its statutes retain the anti-torture provisions of the colonial
vintage; the Indian Penal Code recognizes the heinous nature of torture as it
has created specific categories of hurt and grievous hurt due to torture for
extorting confession. While Afghanistan has remained destabilized for too long
to rein in excesses “of the worst kind” committed by non-state actors, Sri
Lanka and Pakistan are known to have secret locations where torture is applied
to not just criminals but also to political opponents. However, various
judicial institutions in these countries have been probing assorted instances
of custodial tortures. However, the battle to curtail custodial torture is a
long one, especially when some of the state agencies themselves are involved in
resorting to torture, for whatever reasons.
This well
researched tome studies various factors that influence the perpetration and
perpetuation of torture in each of the six South Asian countries. It also looks
at the steps taken to prevent or curtail custodial torture. The various case
studies and other relevant details of law etc make this book invaluable for
reference purposes.
Published in The Financial World dated
August 10 2013
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