Aaryahi Yakshit
On the basic pillars of democracy like rule of law, human dignity, civic participation and good governance, torture is a fundamental assault. In the current scenario all democratic countries were engaged in torture and other cruel inhuman treatment in its counter terrorism operations. Torture can be justified for oppressive regimes and for the maintenance of law and order. Besides that, it was used to destroy external, internal as well as for security threat. In democratic countries, torture is also used when ethnic, religious or political divisions threaten the unity of state. India is considered as world’s largest democracy. The country has civil society, free media and independent judiciary. Still the country is engaged in quotidian violence like torture, which is widely prevalent in the name of national security, investigation crimes, extracting information and punishing criminals. Torture is an instrument of state power in authoritarian system which applies all means to silence the political opponents or bend them towards rule of law. Nevertheless, torture occurs in the democratic countries in which rule of law is highly respected likely in maintaining peace and public order, national security and fight against terrorism. It is clear that in democracy when the rights of an individual have been weakened and are on the mercy of those who are in power, the result is that quotidian violence and other cruel punishments can occur. Torture is a brutal method of social and political control which relies on complex networks of technology, training, facilitators and perpetrators. It demands classified structures located within enclaves of barbarism in order to achieve its aim of inducing terror. Modern states have built burgeoning detention facilities like immigration centers, prisons and police cells that engage in torture and other cruel, inhuman treatments. The law enforcement agencies engage in torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the name of counter- terrorism, security threats and soon. The states use violence like methods to control and terrorize its people to maintain the status quo or to destroy internal or external political, ideological or military threats. The state uses torture and makes it clear that enhanced interrogation techniques makes a person from kidnapping to extraordinary rendition, from citizen to unlawful enemy combatant and from human to terrorist. The paper will analyze the torture in Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods and mainly focus on custodial torture in India and highlights the main provisions of torture bill in India. The study is exploratory in nature which merely intends to explore research questions and does not intend to offer a final and conclusive solution to the existing problem. It determines the nature of problem and hence cannot provide a conclusive evidence. It helps in developing a better understanding of the problem
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