NHRC flags human rights concerns over parading of three persons in south Kolkata

The National Human Rights Commission on Thursday (October 29, 2026) took suo motu cognisance of reports that three accused were paraded in semi-clad condition in the city’s Behala area and issued a notice to the Commissioner of Kolkata Police, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.

A press release by the Commission stated that, according to media reports, three persons were found in a semi-clad condition with ropes tied around their waists in Kolkata. The Commission has observed that the contents of the news report, if true, “raise serious issues of violation of human rights”.

“A day before the incident, an 18-year-old youth and his 19-year-old friend, who were reportedly seen with a minor girl, were beaten and humiliated by the girl’s family members at her house. The youth’s father, whom the girl’s family summoned, was also assaulted. Subsequently, all three were stripped and forced to walk naked on the road at gunpoint,” the release stated.

The Kolkata Police on October 27 paraded two men shirtless in their shorts with ropes tied around their waists. The two were held on Monday (October 26, 2026) for parading three naked men, including two teenagers, on the roads of a Kolkata neighbourhood. The police paraded the accused semi-clad on the same stretch on which the accused had forced the family members of the youths to parade a day before.

Civil rights organisations such as the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) raised questions about the conduct of the police, saying that police were trying to “normalise revenge” and give punishment which the courts must be doing.

This was not the first time that police in West Bengal have paraded accused semi-clad as part of crime scene reconstruction. Several reports of accused persons being paraded not just with ropes tied to their waists but also in vests and underwear had surfaced earlier from Howrah, Kolkata and other parts of the State. The arrests, mostly of accused against whom several allegations of extortion have been made, have taken place after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the State.

On June 5, 2026, the Calcutta High Court had observed that the State has the authority to arrest and prosecute individuals but cannot subject them to humiliation. “The police… can take action according to the law. If found guilty, they can also hang him. But they cannot deliberately defame the accused in the name of arrest,” the court had observed.