People’s Watch, a Madurai-based human rights organisation has sought the intervention of State Human Rights Commission to take suo moto cognizance of the inhumane police action of handcuffing a Pocso case victim in The Nilgiris district earlier this month.

On November 7, a woman constable took the 15-year-old Posco victim to court to record a statement in the case. The victim was accompanied by women police constable from Annai Sathya Home to the magistrate court in Kotagiri to record a statement. The women police constable took the victim in a bus to Kotagiri. Once they de-boarded the bus at Kotagiri, the women police constable handcuffed the victim and walked nearly 400 meters and reached the court. The handcuffs were removed only at the entrance of the court and after recording the statement, the women police constable handcuffed the victim again near the court premises and made her walk to the bus stand on the public road, which caused mental agony to the victim, Henri Tiphagne, ED, People's Watch said on Monday. It amounts to violation of the right to be treated with dignity during judicial process, he added.