Bengal rights panel orders probe into chaining of undertrial

Kolkata, April 17 (IANS) The West Bengal Human Rights Commission Wednesday asked the state police to probe the chaining of an arrested student activist to his hospital bed by the police.

“The full bench of the commission Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the chaining incident and has asked the Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) to probe the incident and give his personal impression about the incident,” commission joint secretary Sujay Haldar said.

The report is to be submitted within two weeks.

Santosh Sahani, a first year BA student arrested April 10 for participating in a students’ rally that turned violent, was kept chained to his hospital for two days by the police.

The police, who used a handcuff to chain Sahani by leg to his bed, had resorted to the “inhuman treatment” as they did not have enough personnel to keep a watch on him.

A local leader of the CPI-M affiliated Students Federation of India, Sahani was Monday admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri in Darjeeling district, after he said he felt sick.

Following criticism from all quarters after the video footage of a chained Sahani was teledcast by TV channels, police unchained him Tuesday.

Both the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Congress condemned the incident, describing it as “inhuman and barbaric”.

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