NHRC declines to expand probe on ‘police killings’

[s s Jhamka]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

this is sad news thought they might investigate other killings and bring to the world the true figures of those killed by the indian police. its a white wash, typical out off the thousands killed only 109 are compensated. typical indian justice

NHRC declines to expand probe on ‘police killings’

S.S. NEGI

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041114/nation.htm#1

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 13

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which had directed the Punjab Government to compensate the kin of 109 custodial death victims during militancy in the state, has declined to bring in its ambit all the “police killings” for inquiry and making public various CBI status reports regarding 2,097 cases referred to it by the Supreme Court for deciding the compensation aspect.

A three-member Bench of the commission, comprising its Chairman, Justice A.S. Anand, Mr Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao and Mr Justice R.S. Kalha, while quoting from the proceedings of its various sittings, rejected the plea for expanding the NHRC inquiry to include all alleged “police killings” during over a decade-long terrorism.

The commission also rejected the plea of the counsel for the kin of the victims and the Punjab police for making the CBI probe reports public and supply them copies of the same, stating that it might hamper further investigation by the agency under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) as in most of the cases it was not yet over.

“Status reports at present indicate the progress of investigation

conducted by the CBI. In view of the legal position and the circumstances that in many cases investigation is yet to be completed, the commission is of the view that it should decline to throw open the status reports for inspection by the petitioners,” the NHRC Bench ruled.

The commission said the scope of the probe before it related to 2,097 “cremations” done by the Punjab police of the alleged terrorists who were in their “custody” and as per the CBI reports, 585 of them had been identified, 274 were partially identified while the remaining 1,238 had not been identified.

“It is the duty of the commission to balance the competing interests of the public service and the access to the information, by assessing the efforts of disclosure whether it would advance the cause of justice or impede the progress of investigation,” the NHRC said. Clarifying that the CBI counsel though had not objected to the NHRC looking into the status reports, the same had been kept in the “sealed cover” pending inquiry.

As per the CBI reports regarding 585 cases in which the victims cremated by the police had been identified, the particulars collected by the agency “should furnish the basis for proceeding with the investigation irrespective of the question whether any claim (for compensation) has been filed or not,” the commission said.

So far as the 274 partially unidentified deaths are concerned, the available particulars have to be utilised for making full identification of the victims and obtaining the other particulars to enable the inquiry to proceed and in respect of the 1,238 unidentified cremations, efforts should be made to obtain the necessary particulars in every possible manner so that investigation in these cases could also be held to try to establish their identity, it said.

“It has been stated before us that there are a number of cases in which the state itself had admitted that the deceased persons had been taken into custody. It would be helpful to have a list of such cases,” the

NHRC Bench observed.