SC junks plea against handcuffing of accused

New Delhi, Oct 14 The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a plea for directions to prevent handcuffing of the accused so as to prevent extrajudicial killings in India.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde told Senior Advocate Jitendra M Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, that some prisoners were very dangerous and needed to be handcuffed. "We agree it (extrajudicial killings) should be prevented, but how can we stop this?" asked the Chief Justice.

Sharma contended that he was not saying that the accused should not be handcuffed, but a request needed to be made before the Magistrate concerned for the same.

He argued that the accused must be handcuffed, but the handcuffs should not be forced on the undertrial or prisoner. "The Magistrate must check if the accused wants to be handcuffed," Sharma said.

The Chief Justice asked: "Which accused will say yes? Imagine, if the Magistrate asks an accused if he wants to be handcuffed, he will obviously say no. It will be quite foolish of him (accused) to say yes."

The Chief Justice emphasised that there were accused who killed police and jail warders.

After a brief hearing, the top court said it was not inclined to entertain the petition.

( With inputs from IANS )