Margao custodial death raises questions in law

It has been over a month since Santosh Gaekwad died inpolice custody but the reasons for his custodial death remains a mystery.

While the Judicial Magistrate First Class is investigatingwhether Gaekwad died of physical abuse in the police lockup, a new debaterages. Did Gaekwad die of physical abuse or was he an alcoholic, who died ofwithdrawal symptoms?

“Under law it is not mandatory for the police to conduct anykind of detailed health examination of an accused before he is arrested,” saysnoted Supreme Court lawyer PratapVenugopal. Venugopal points out that when anaccused is arrested, he is physically examined whether he is suffering from anykind of injury that may be fatal during his / her detention.

The law may at this point of time look lop sided and tiltedagainst the wellbeing or the state of health of a detainee. The reason thepolice or the doctor examining the accused being taken into custody, would notknow if s/he is suffering from a fatal disease that is not visible upfront.

Health conditions of the heart and / or mind may not bephysically visible on the outside. An accused being taken into custody coulddevelop psychosomatic conditions in such cases that may lead to his death.

As per statute, police should conduct fitness examinationsin government hospitals. In Goa, Police department generally carry out themedical examinations of the detainees in Goa Medical College and Hospicio,Margao.

“We usually ask the accused what problem he has and we checkall external injuries first and note down the same on the certificate,” adoctor informed. Tests for drugs and alcohol are also part of the examination.“We also check the blood pressure of the accused if he is more than 40 years ofage” a doctor said.

The doctors agree that many life threatening conditionscannot be ascertained by such basic health examination.

In Santosh Gaekwad’s case, he was arrested on a Saturday andGoa Police were aware that they wouldn’t be able to produce him before theMagistrate within 48 hours. The question being raised is why was he notthoroughly investigated for any health ailment, which in his case the policeinsist is of alcohol withdrawal symptoms?

The same police in another Police Station (Anjuna) tried topass off a gunshot death as asthma attack.

“Before being taken into custody we check whether a detaineehas any external injury that can be fatal,” explains Dr Silvano Sapeco, Head ofDepartment, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Goa Medical College.

“But after that too if a normal looking person dies inpolice custody, I will not be able to establish if he dies, say of shock thatmight be mental in nature or a stress related heart attack,” Sapeco said.

Sapeco explains that routine police procedure like drumming(where a detainee is repeatedly slapped on the ear) etc may also be fatal ifthe detainee is physically fragile.

Question then is, isn’t there a window in law that thePolice can use to rough up a detainee and get away even with murder? 

Custodial death in Goa