3 min readAhmedabadMay 13, 2026 08:38 PM IST
The chief of the Gujarat Police – DGP K L N Rao – on Wednesday reminded police personnel of the rights and dignity of accused persons, cited judgments from the Supreme Court and Gujarat High Court (HC) on the same and warned against action for violation of such orders.
In a letter dated May 12, Rao, the in-charge head of the state police force, specifically pointed out the law and regulations related to handcuffing of arrested persons, tying them with ropes and parading them on the streets, and ordered that “these actions are not as per established processes” and must be stopped forthwith.
Apart from the landmark SC judgment in the DK Basu vs State of West Bengal of December 18, 1996, DGP Rao also pointed to the 2019 judgment of the Gujarat HC in Bhautik Vijaybhai Bhatt vs State of Gujarat that deals with “no public parading of accused during arrest, protection of the accused from violent mobs, no misbehaviour towards accused persons, and maintaining the dignity of the accused persons.”
Rao’s letter stated, “The image of the Gujarat Police is tarnished because of actions such as handcuffing of accused or tying them with ropes and publicly parading them and showing off. Such inhuman behaviour also overshadows the good work of the police and leaves a bad impression of the police on the public.”
The letter goes on to enumerate the sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita dealing with arrest and questioning of accused persons in police custody.
The letter specifically made clear that certain actions are not expected of police personnel. These include making accused persons do sit-ups in public, making them walk on their knees, kicking them or hitting them with sticks, make them apologise by holding ears or with folded hands, and make them squat like a rooster in public.
The letter also outlines that if such police misbehaviour comes to light, officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent and above would be held responsible.
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Earlier this month, five persons moved the Gujarat HC seeking action against nine police officers in Vadodara for alleged custodial torture, parading them in full public view, and thereby committing contempt of court by violating the Supreme Court’s order. The petition was filed by Sufiyan Mansuri, Shanawaz Kureshi, Junaid Sindhi, Anas Kureshi and Sadeka Sindhi who had been arrested following communal disturbances in August 2025, allegedly after an incident where eggs were allegedly hurled at a Ganesh procession during Navratri.
On May 8, the Gujarat HC stayed the summons issued to six police officers by a JMFC court in Matar, Kheda, after an inquiry into allegations of assault in the public flogging incident in Undhela village on October 4, 2022, where men from the Muslim community were tied to electric poles and flogged in public by the police following an alleged after a stone pelting incident at a garba event the previous night during Navratri with videos of the incident going viral on social media. The six officials had moved the HC, which stayed the proceedings. Earlier, in 2023, the Gujarat HC held four police personnel guilty of contempt of court in the same case but the AC had stayed the ruling.
