In Yogi’s UP, Supreme Court, NHRC guidelines have little effect

Specific guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2016 and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in 2010 are routinely breached, complain relatives of the deceased. In a statement in February this year, the NHRC sent yet another notice to the Yogi Government after a 25-year-old was killed by a sub-inspector in Noida. The SI had allegedly told his colleague that the encounter would earn him an out-of-turn promotion.

NHRC did its duty by issuing the notice and a statement that read in part, “It seems police personnel in UP are feeling free to misuse their power” following encouragement and endorsement by the higher-ups. The statement added, “They are using their privileges to settle scores with the people.”

But NHRC’s own role is not always above board. Relatives of Sumit Gurjar (20), son of Karan Singh of Baghpat, say he was picked up by Noida Police on September 30 last year and a demand for Rs 3.5 lakh was made by the police to release him. On October 2, the relatives complained to the DIG and reached out to NHRC. But there was no response but during the day, Noida Police announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for information about Sumit Gurjar and raised it to Rs 50,000 within hours. On October 3, the young man was declared to have been killed in an encounter in Greater Noida.

The relatives suspect this was a case of mistaken identity. While Karan Singh’s son had no police case, a namesake of Sumit but son of Sheeshram had two police cases against him. Could the innocent man have been saved if NHRC or the DIG had responded to the SOS?

NHRC guidelines to the police on encounters were issued in 2010. The Supreme Court came up with a 16-point guideline in 2016. But nothing seems to work. Some of the more important guidelines are as follows:

• An independent investigation shall be conducted by CB/CID or by another police station ( SC)
• A magisterial inquiry u/s 176 must be held in all cases of death in the course of police firing (SC)
• Evidentiary material like blood-stained earth, hair, fibres etc. to be preserved (SC)
• Post-mortem to be conducted by two doctors (SC)
• Intact fingerprints of victims to be sent for chemical analysis (SC)
• Relatives of the deceased and eyewitnesses must be examined ( NHRC)