Kolkata: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognisance of reports that police paraded three persons semi-naked in Sarsuna. It has issued a notice to the Kolkata Police commissioner, seeking a detailed report within two weeks.
The incident took place last Tuesday, around 36 hours after an 18-year-old youth, his father and the youth’s 19-year-old friend were allegedly forced to strip and walk about 50 m at gunpoint after the youth was allegedly spotted kissing a 13-year-old girl, purportedly his girlfriend. “According to the media report, carried on Oct 28, 2026, the police brought three arrested persons, including the girl’s father, her maternal uncle and his friend, to the same locality and made them walk shirtless and barefoot for over 100 m purportedly for the reconstruction of the crime scene. Subsequently, he was also charged with section 376(d) of IPC (gangrape),” the AAG had submitted.
Therefore, it has issued a notice to the Kolkata Police commissioner, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks,” the NHRC said in a press release on Thursday.
The Calcutta High Court had recently made strong observations on police parading accused in the name of “recreating a crime”. A few months ago, the court had said, “accused persons should not be paraded publicly as it amounts to violation of human rights”, while refusing to quash the gang-rape case against former MLA Saokat Molla. The court had said the facts mentioned in the complaint were “ugly”. Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya had said the practice of parading an arrested person through a locality should stop.
Cops from the Sarsuna PS later brought three—the girl’s father, her maternal uncle and his friend—of the four arrested accused to the same spot and paraded them shirtless and barefoot. “The commission has observed that the contents of the news report, if true, raise serious issues of violation of human rights. Molla’s wife had moved the single bench of Justice Bhattacharyya, seeking relief on two grounds: quashing of the FIR registered against him at Jibantala Police Station and action over his alleged public parading after arrest. Her plea followed Molla’s visit to Jibantala in Canning for the reconstruction of a crime scene. As the police convoy arrived under heavy security, residents gathered and played a viral political song, targeting the former MLA. Slogans and abuses were also allegedly hurled at him. When Justice Bhattacharyya questioned the state counsel, additional advocate general Rajdeep Mazumder had denied that Molla was paraded. “Visitation of a place of occurrence is an integral part of an investigation. People gathered but we ensured no untoward incident took place. Initially, he was arrested in a case taken up by NIA, they had taken him in custody.