Srinagar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has condemned the public beating and parading of suspects by police in Jammu last year as a “serious violation of human rights”, citing the alleged complicity of police personnel in the incident.The commission on Wednesday (March 25) took cognisance of the alleged police excesses that took place in the jurisdictions of the Gangyal and Bakshi Nagar police stations of Jammu on June 11 and June 24 last year respectively.Three of four men accused of involvement in a shootout were beaten up by police personnel in Gangyal in full public view, while a robber was assaulted, partially stripped and paraded on an official vehicle by the Jammu police in the Bakshi Nagar area.Nikhil Padha, a Jammu-based lawyer, had filed a complaint with the NHRC on June 28 last year after the two incidents triggered outrage across Jammu and Kashmir, with netizens and some political parties outraging against the “disgraceful conduct” of the police personnel.The commission ruled on Wednesday that the “allegations levelled” in the complaint, which has been signed by 16 other lawyers and law students from Jammu, constitutes “serious violations of the Human Rights of the victims”.“Accordingly, the Registry is directed to send a copy of the complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir to make an inquiry and submit the report expeditiously within a period of 2 weeks,” the commission said.The Jammu police has defended its actions in the Gangyal incident, claiming that the three suspects “attempted to disrupt” the investigation into a shootout in which two persons including a suspected history-sheeter were injured.In a statement, the police had also claimed that the trio resorted to “threatening civilians present at the scene” when a team of police investigators was “proceeding towards the crime spot for the preparation of a pointing-out memo”.“The accused persons also attempted to intimidate the police team on duty. In response, the police acted swiftly, applying necessary force to neutralise the situation, maintain law and order and reassure the public,” the statement said.However, the complaint filed with the NHRC alleged that the police personnel had violated the human rights of the three suspects “through acts of public humiliation and unlawful parading”.The complaint noted that the police’s actions amounted to a “punishment before trial” that has eroded their dignity and set a “dangerous precedent for vigilante policing”.“Videos circulating widely on social media depict police officers caning and slapping the accused in full public view. The accused were handcuffed and beaten as they were marched through the streets, in what appears to be a performative display of ‘justice’,” the complaint said.A probe was ordered by senior superintendent of police for Jammu Joginder Singh in connection with the Bakshi Nagar incident but its findings have not been made public. Singh refused to comment on the matter.Two uniformed policemen were caught on camera pulling out a handcuffed man from the rear side of a Jammu and Kashmir police vehicle in the presence of Azad Manhas, then-station house officer of the Bakshi Nagar police station on June 24 last year.The two policemen were seen dragging the suspect and hauling him on the bonnet of the vehicle, with Manhas poking his face with a wooden staff and pushing him with a degree of violence to make him sit straight on the bonnet and reveal his face.The incident bears a painful resemblance to the tying of Farooq Ahmad Dar, a Kashmiri civilian, to the bonnet of an army car in central Kashmir’s Budgam district in 2017 by army major Leetul Gogoi of 53 Rashtriya Rifles, who claimed to have used the victim as a human shield against stone throwers.A public address system was also mounted on the police vehicle in last year’s incident, which announced that the suspect, a resident of Reasi who had allegedly robbed a man outside a hospital in the Bakshi Nagar police station’s jurisdiction on June 6, was a “professional thief”.The complaint alleged that the suspect was forcibly made to wear a garland of shoes and paraded through the streets of Jammu “under full police supervision with the participation of local bystanders”.“These incidents were recorded and circulated, bringing public attention to the degrading and unlawful practices of public humiliation carried out by the police under the guise of maintaining law and order,” Padha said in his complaint to the NHRC.It added: “These acts serve not the interest of justice, but the theatrics of retribution. Allowing such practices to continue sets a dangerous precedent for “vigilante policing.””The complaint urged the NHRC to order independent inquiries into the two incidents and recommend legal action against the police officials who were involved in the incidents “to prevent recurrence”.