Tell police to instantly report custody death to magistrate: HC to Maharashtra

MUMBAI: Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the state government to instruct all police stations and jails across Maharashtra to immediately report to the metropolitan magistrate and the district sessions judge of a death in their custody.
A bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Prakash Naik took note that section 176 (1A) of the Criminal Procedure Code, introduced in 2005, contemplates expeditious judicial inquiry.The magistrate within 24 hours has to send the body for post-mortem. The judges wondered if it was being implemented.
They said failure to immediately intimate the magistrate will result in non-compliance of the section. "Otherwise it will remain only on paper,” said Justice Oka. The government is directed to issue the appropriate instructions within six weeks to all the in-charge of all police stations and jails.
The judges also said the police need not the magistrate’s inquiry report to register a First Information Report. They pointed out that the magistrate's inquiry is in addition to investigation by police and that there is an inquiry ordered by the magistrate "cannot be a ground to delay registration of an FIR."
The court heard a clutch of petitions including one by Leonard Valdaris whose 25 year old son Agnelo died in the police lock-up after he was picked up along with three others by the Government Railway Police at Wadala for alleged chain snatching. An FIR was registered against 7 policemen. The HC transferred the case to CBI for probe.
The bench directed the state government to file a compliance affidavit before the next hearing on June 24 and also provide statistics , if available, of the number of cases where the magistrate/sessions judge was informed.