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Moga Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pawan Kumar Rai ordered an inquiry into the alleged torture of Karaj Singh while in custody at the Kot Isse Khan police station on July 21st.  Police arrested Singh on complaints lodged by Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Jarnail Singh and Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) SDO Charanjit Singh Mann. He has since been admitted to the Moga Civil Hospital.

Singh’s family members claim that a group of policemen and PSEB employees led by ASI Singh entered their home in Masita village late Friday night. They proceeded to assault the victim and his relatives. The group then took Singh to Kot Isse Khan police station, where the police further beat him and tortured him with electric shocks.

The victim’s family also states that the motivation for these acts of torture came from a query he posed to certain PSEB employees earlier Friday evening. On Singh’s return home from his shop in Fatehgarh Panchtoor village around 10 pm, he stopped to ask  PSEB workers about recent power shortages.

Kot Isse Khan Station House Officer (SHO)/Sub-Inspector (SI) Ravinder Singh denied beating and shocking Singh. The SI instead contended that Singh and his family members attacked the police team that entered the house to investigate a First Information Report (FIR) complaint by PSEB SDO Mann. He also stated that ASI Singh registered a separate FIR complaint against seven of Karaj Singh’s family members after the incident.

The PSEB gives a different version of the motivation for police involvement in this case. According to PSEB Xen. City Mohinder Singh Brar, an openly drunk Singh, impersonating a police sub-inspector, misbehaved with PSEB employees. SDO Mann went to the Kot Isse Khan police station following the incident to register an FIR against him.

Karaj was not beaten up by PSEB employees, [Brar] added.

The probe is currently under the review of Dharmkot (Firozpur) Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chaman Lal.

This case illustrates the complications that arise in the presence of multiple First Information Reports (FIRs). In India, an FIR is a written document prepared by the police when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence. A cognizable offence is one in which the police may arrest a person without warrant. This means they hold authorization to start an investigation on their own: they do not require any court orders to do so.

An FIR is the first step in the cycle of Indian criminal justice. However, FIRs carry risk of fabrication, misinterpretation, and dismissal by police officials.

The police may not investigate a complaint even if you file a FIR, when:
(i) The case is not serious in nature;
(ii) The police feel that there is not enough ground to investigate.
However, the police must record the reasons for not conducting an investigation and in the latter case must also inform you.

Essentially, police officials hold final say into which FIR merits cognizable offence. Judicial impunity is an inevitable result if a high court accepts police reasons against investigating an FIR without considering their ability to intimidate victims, such as alleged in Karaj Singh’s case, or penchant for manipulating/refuting witness statements.

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