Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 1: The National Human Rights Commission informed officials on Friday that it had taken suo moto cognizance of a media report claiming that a 23-year-old man had killed himself by jumping in front of a train because he could no longer bear to see his father being brutally beaten by police officers at a police station in the Chhattisgarh district of Bilaspur.
The Commission noted that, if true, the information in the media amounted to a breach of the victims’ rights to life and dignity.
“A minor issue of hitting someone with a bike resulted in the highhandedness and abuse of power by the police, who not only illegally arrested and detained the father of the victim but also gave him severe beatings as mentioned in the news report. The son suffered humiliation when he saw his father being beaten up by the police and committed suicide out of embarrassment. A precious human life has been lost due to the apparent insensible and inhuman approach of the police personnel,” read an official statement by NHRC.
The Commission sent a notice to the Director General of Police in Chhattisgarh requesting a thorough report on the incident, including any disciplinary action taken against the responsible police officers and whether the victim’s family has received any compensation, within four weeks.
The leading human rights organisation also requested that its Special Rapporteur for the State of Chhattisgarh, Umesh Kumar Sharma, visit the concerned police station in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, to ascertain how seriously the Apex Court’s directives in the case of DK Basu v. State of West Bengal 1997 (1) SCC 416 have been broken by the district’s police authorities and to determine the responsibility of the public employee who allegedly tortured the victim.
Additionally, he is supposed to provide solutions to the problem of incarceration torture by holding superior officials accountable. Within two months, his report is anticipated.
