Patna HC takes suo motu cognizance of video showing Bihar cops dumping body into canal

A division bench comprising Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Rajiv Roy asked the state police chief to "place on record the action taken against erring officials"

Patna: The Patna High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of news reports of a video in which three Bihar policemen were seen dumping the body of a road accident victim into a canal in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Rajiv Roy asked the state police chief to “place on record the action taken against erring officials”.

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“We are definite that going by the manner in which police had acted in the incident, it is a sad reflection on our society”, observed the court.

The order, which was passed on Monday and uploaded on the court website on Tuesday, also fixed October 31 as the next date of hearing.

“Many believe that bodies, without life, are dispensable repositories of the soul, but when alive, it carries a soul, a part of a whole, which exists in every living being. A little more respect and a lot more dignity is required in its disposal”, said the court.

To the brief order-sheet, the court appended the NHRC’s ‘Advisory for Upholding the Dignity and Protecting the Rights of the Dead’, which was issued during the coronavirus pandemic.

Muzaffarpur police had on Sunday terminated the contracts of two home guards personnel and placed under suspension a constable who were caught on camera throwing the body of the accident victim into a canal.