Bhagwan Dass & Anr. v. State of Haryana
Background
The appellants, a Sub-Inspector/SHO and an Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Haryana Police, were alleged to have illegally detained one Bishamber @ Bishamber Dayal at Police Station Dharuhera from 7 to 10 October 1992 and subjected him to custodial torture. The trial court acquitted them of all charges, but the High Court reversed the acquittal on appeal and convicted them under Sections 326, 331, 343 and 346 IPC, sentencing them to two years' imprisonment. The police officers appealed to the Supreme Court, while the victim Bishamber separately appealed (Criminal Appeal Nos. 284-285 of 2014) seeking enhancement, though he did not appear at the hearing.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court did not disturb the High Court's finding of conviction, but reduced the sentence from two years' imprisonment to the period the appellants had already undergone (about fifteen months), taking into account that the incident occurred in 1992, the appellants had since reached superannuation and were 70 and 80 years old respectively, and the victim had since received a government job. The Court expressly clarified that this leniency in sentencing was confined to the peculiar facts of this case and should not be treated as a precedent. The connected victim's appeal (seeking enhancement) was disposed of in the same terms, following the outcome in the main appeal.
Lesson Learnt
Even where a conviction for a serious offence like custodial torture is upheld, courts retain discretion to moderate the sentence based on case-specific mitigating factors such as the long passage of time, the advanced age of the convicts, and the fact that the victim has since been rehabilitated, but such leniency is explicitly fact-specific and not meant to dilute the seriousness of custodial-violence offences generally.