HYDERABAD:The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is considering the possibility of taking suo motu cognisance of farmer Gajendra Singh’s suicide at the AAP rally in New Delhi.
“Farmer’s suicide in Delhi has come to our notice. We will consider taking it up as suo motu after reaching Delhi,” NHRC chairperson Justice KG Balakrishnan said. Justice Balakrishnan and other members of the Delhi-headquartered Commission were here to participate in a three-day Open hearing and Camp Sitting, which concluded on Friday.
Justice Balakrishnan said State governments have to take up whatever measures possible to prevent suicides of farmers. All options like increasing ex gratia to the deceased, waiver of loans, steps to prevent farmers from approaching private money lenders by expanding credit facility from nationalised banks and cooperative societies must be considered, he suggested.
The NHRC’s camp sitting in Hyderabad assumed significance as the two recent encounters, one at the Seshachalam forest in Andhra Pradesh and the other in Nalgonda district in Telangana, came up for hearing.
Justice Balakrishnan said the commission’s team would shortly visit the encounter spot in the Seshachalam forest and draw up a report, based on which the human rights watchdog would arrive at a conclusion. “We will decide in a week about NHRC team’s composition and date of visit to the Seshachalam encounter site,’’ he said. The commission had on Thursday favoured a judcial probe into the encounter in which 25 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were killed by the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force.
The Commission has also ordered the Telangana government to submit all the records relating to the killing of five undertrial prisoners in an encounter at Alair mandal in Nalgonda district on April 7. It sought autopsy reports of the five victims, including the notorious Viqaruddin, who family has sought a thorough probe into the incident.
The Commission heard about 100 cases relating to violation of human rights by the police, SC/ST atrocities, migrant labourers and bonded labourers among others during its three-day stay in Hyderabad. It has made various recommendations in these cases ranging from ordering compensations to directing officials to register cases immediately.
The commission also held a meeting with senior officials from both the states on Friday and urged them to protect the rights of the poor and marginalised sections. It also urged non-government organisations and the media to create awareness about legal recourses available to the victims.
SIT to Probe Chittoor Firing
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case pertaining to the killing of 20 people in Seshachalam forest area of Chittoor district, DGP JV Ramudu said in a statement here on Friday. The SIT will be headed by senior IPS officer Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, Inspector General of Police, just repatriated from Central Deputation, National Investigation Agency. The other members of the SIT are -- BV Ramana Kumar, DIG, Kurnool, G Pala Raju, SP, Technical Servicers, L Chandrasekhar, ASP, West Godavari district, N Yugandhar Babu, DSP, CID, K Raghu, DSP, CID, G Madhusudan, Inspector, Korukonda, East Godavari district and S Chandrasekhar, CI, Chittoor district.
HC Calls for Case Diary
Hyderabad: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the AP police to submit by next Tuesday the case diary pertaining to the cases registered after the killing of 20 woodcutters in the encounter that took place in Seshachalam forest near Tirupati in Chittoor district. The bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar passed this direction in a PIL filed by Chilka Chandra Sekhar of the Civil Liberties Committee seeking a CBI probe into the case.