INDIA'S POLICE FORCE THINK IT IS ABOVE THE LAW

India's police force has been accused of extrajudicial killings, torture and carrying out illegal detentions, human rights campaigners have said.

• "India's status as the world's largest democracy is undermined by a police force that thinks it is above the law," Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on Tuesday.
• "The police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats ... It's time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system."
• A report - titled Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police -collated from interviews with 60 alleged victims and about 80 police officers of various ranks detailed various abuses.
• Several officers admitted in private that suspects were often tortured and beaten to extract confessions, the report said.
• A female suspect was killed in custody in one case and her killing passed off as suicide, a police officer said.
• Some also spoke of manufacturing "encounters" during which a suspect was killed and the death passed off as taking place during a shootout.
  Source: Al Jazeera