Police brutality needs to be curbed to restore faith in the police force | Photo Credit: D-Keine

The judicial decision in the sordid Sattankulam case is out at last. All nine policemen accused of torturing to death a father and son duo in 2020 have been sentenced to death by a trial court.

The incident is a blot on the image of Tamil Nadu Police. Though this episode is not the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu, its brutality and brazenness is shocking. The question is, how will a common man ever trust the police in future?

Common occurance

Police brutality, unfortunately, is not uncommon in other parts of India and the world.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to ignore the Sattankulam incident because of the policemen concerned had undeniably been guilty of extreme, brutal violence.

The victims were not common criminals, nor had they figured as suspects in the police records. Their only indiscretion was they had kept their shop open beyond hours prescribed by the authorities during Covid time.

We do not know whether the policemen concerned were first-time offenders or had been guilty of excesses in the past. Only supervisory officers would know whether the delinquents had come to adverse notice earlier for similar misconduct. Those who have served in the police would know that a few policemen (even at the IPS level) are prone to using violence at a drop of a hat against suspects, or even members of the public who misbehave while interacting with the police. Such a tendency is built into their psyche.

Entrenched practices

This is unfortunate, in particular in democracies like ours. But police brutality existed during colonial rule, too. Under the British, this was an offshoot of the determination to control crowds associated with the freedom movement. It is a tragedy that such unacceptable behaviour has been carried into the post- Independence period.

Police torture is often the outcome of over zealousness in criminal investigation. The pressure to solve a case early leads investigators to use “third degree” methods to ferret out the truth. Such pressure often emanates from senior officers, and sometimes from the political class. They should take the blame and be punished for unethical interference in investigations,

Another reason for police misbehaviour is lax supervision. The police top brass often does not know what happens in police stations. An unsupervised police station is an invitation to police misconduct, Being soft on misconduct and trying to be popular among lower echelons is also a trigger for police misbehaviour. There is a serious flaw in pre-entry training here that needs to be plugged.

The writer is a former CBI Director

Published on April 19, 2026