NHRC Notice to Kolkata Police Over Parading of Three Men

The National Human Rights Commission has acted on its own, without waiting for anyone to lodge a complaint, over a report that the police walked three men through a Kolkata locality in a semi-nude state with ropes tied round their waists. The Commission issued a notice on 29 October 2026 to the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, asking for a detailed report within two weeks.

What the report described

The media account, published on 28 October 2026, said the three had been arrested and were brought back to the same neighbourhood, where they were made to walk shirtless and barefoot for a distance of more than 100 metres. The stated reason was the reconstruction of the crime scene. The three men were the father of a girl, her maternal uncle and a friend of the uncle.

The incident behind the arrests

A day before the parade, according to the same report, a youth of 18 and his friend of 19 were seen in the company of a minor girl. The two were beaten and humiliated inside the girl's house by members of her family. The youth's father was called to the house by the family and was assaulted as well. All three were then stripped and forced at gunpoint to walk naked on the road.

What the Commission said

The Commission observed that the contents of the news report, if they turn out to be true, raise serious questions of human rights being violated, and that is the ground on which it has called for the report. A notice of this kind requires the police authority to set out the facts as it finds them, the action taken on the complaint and the steps taken against any of its own personnel found at fault, and the Commission then decides what further direction to issue in the matter.

Why it matters for aspirants

Questions on the Commission usually turn on the powers it uses in exactly this sort of case: the authority to look into an alleged violation of human rights on its own motion, on the strength of a newspaper or television report alone, and to call for a report from a state authority within a fixed period. Here both features appear together, with the state's police chief as the addressee and a fortnight as the deadline.