NEW DELHI: After allegations of fake encounters against the Uttar Pradesh police, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued notices to the UP chief secretary and the police chief.
The human rights body has constituted a five-member team to investigate 17 cases and directed it to submit the status report of the cases within six weeks.
The NHRC took the action after a complaint was lodged by the familes of the victims killed in the alleged fake encounters. The 17 cases were mentioned in the complaint made by advocate Prashant Bhushan and members of ‘NGO’ Citizen Against Crime.As per the notices, the Commission states “documents prima-facie show that there may be chances of failure on the part of the state to adhere to the guidelines issued by the Apex Court and the Commission, and that police exceeded the jurisdiction at the time of alleged encounter killings.”
Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the affected families, pleaded for strict action against the police officials allegedly responsible for fake encounters. “We applaud the Commission for considering the urgency of the matter and constituting an investigating team of five members, to conduct an in-depth fact-finding enquiry of the 17 cases mentioned in the complaints, record the statements of the affected families and carry out other necessary examination relating to the alleged incident of encounter deaths, and submit a report within four weeks,” Bhushan said.