New Delhi, April 9 -- In a serious development that raises questions about custodial practices and medical integrity, a Delhi court has ordered the registration of FIRs against a police inspector and a doctor following allegations of custodial torture.

The case came to light after Nishit Kumar Rajendrabhai Patel, accused in a passport forgery case, told the Patiala House Court that he was physically tortured while in police custody.

Patel, who had been re-arrested and produced before the court on April 5, made the allegation during a private interaction with the judge.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Pranav Joshi found visible bruises on Patel's arms and feet during an in-camera examination.

Taking serious note of the injuries, ACJM Joshi refused to grant the 10-day police remand sought by Delhi Police and directed the station house officer (SHO) of IGI Airport Police Station to file an FIR against Inspector Sumit Kumar.

The judge observed that the injuries pointed to custodial violence and wrote in his April 8 order, "Custodial violence strikes at the very foundation of the democratic set-up where the liberty of an individual is considered sacrosanct."

Inspector Kumar has been directed to be booked under sections 117 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 119 (grievous hurt to extort property), and 126 (wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Further complicating the case, the court found discrepancies in the medico-legal report (MLC) prepared by Dr. Aman Gahlot of Indira

Gandhi Hospital.

The report claimed Patel had no injuries, contradicting the court's findings. ACJM Joshi remarked that the doctor appeared to have "conspired with the police officials" by filing a false report, thereby shielding them.

The court directed the SHO to register a separate FIR against Dr. Gahlot under Section 62 of the BNS, read with Sections 117, 119, and 126.

Additionally, the doctor has been booked under Section 256 for allegedly falsifying medical records to protect those accused of wrongdoing.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), IGI Airport, had sought time to conduct a detailed inquiry. However, the judge made it clear that administrative action alone would not suffice, stating that a judicial intervention was necessary given the seriousness of the allegations.

In a closing remark, the court quoted Abraham Lincoln, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.