Mumbai: Leonard Valdaris, father of 24-year-old Agnelo is inconsolable. Fighting back tears he says, “They showed me his dead body. How can this happen? I had given him to you all and what did you do to my son? Yesterday they were saying that they will kill my son but I didn't believe them and I thought they were just scaring me. And then they just killed him."
It has been 18 long months since Leonard Valdaris's son was allegedly mercilessly tortured to death in police custody. There has not been a single arrest in the case and the CBI is yet to file a charge sheet. Agnelo's is among the 269 cases of custodial deaths recorded in the state over the last 10 years. Maharashtra again retained its dubious distinction of recording the maximum number of custodial deaths in the country.
Yug Chaudhry, a senior advocate said “Police officials can repeatedly keep torturing people and get away with it. They keep doing it again and again. They are not even reprimanded let alone prosecuted or punished. Now the officer who is asked to conduct that inquiry is the officer who does all the cover ups. All the evidences are destroyed by the same officer. I have seen so many such cases."
According to documents accessed by CNN-IBN, of the 269 cases registered in the state in the last 10 years, magisterial inquiry was ordered in only 35 cases while judicial inquiries were ordered in three. FIRs were filed in about 30 cases, and around only 15 policemen have been charge-sheeted. But there have been zero convictions.
Yug Chaudhry said, “The main thing is transparency and I think the CCTV directive given by the Bombay High court is the single most effective way of stopping custodial deaths. Till today there have been no steps taken."
In October, the Bombay High Court pointed to the "complete lack of political will" in addressing the issue of custodial deaths and directed the state to ensure zero custodial deaths in the next six months or face strict action. Sadly, nothing has happened till today.
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