K'taka: Police must honour human rights

Bangalore, Apr 16: Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Chairman Justice S R Nayak today urged the police personnel to give utmost respect to the principles of the Constitution, which had vested them with the power to protect the citizens from oppression, atrocities and violence.

Inaugurating a state-level seminar on 'Human Rights,' organised by the Bangalore city police here, he expressed concern that in most of the police stations, SHRC found that human rights were being violated.

Exhorting the police personnel to live up to the expectations of the founding fathers of the Constitution and people, Justice Nayak warned police officers against assuming extra-Constitutional powers to perpetrate violence against those in custody.

Stating that ever since the SHRC intervened, the police was put on a 'reformative path', he said, ''still you have to improve a lot in terms of honouring human rights.'' Karnataka Director General of Police K R Srinivasan, who also spoke on the occasion, opined that there was a need for attitudinal and behavioural changes among police personnel. ''In a desire to find quick results, it is unfair to violate human rights,'' he added.

UNI