The states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are yet to submit their action taken report to the National Human Rights Commission on identifying the officials of the Special Task Force (STF), who committed atrocities on common people while nabbing forest brigand Veerappan.
“The six-week-deadline is already over and we are still waiting for reports of both the states in response to our directive on identifying the erring police officials. In case we don’t  get any response from them we will ask the chief secretaries of both the states to present their position before the commission,” NHRC Chairperson Justice S Rajendra Babu said here on Tuesday.
He, however, informed that both the states had complied with the amount of compensation which the commission had asked the authorities to pay to those victimised.
“We are satisfied with the compensation and now we are waiting for their report on how far they have been successful in identifying the erring police officials,” he said.
NHRC member Y Bhaskara Rao told Deccan Herald that in case the report sent by the states were not satisfactory, the commission would depute its own fact-finding team to the states.
Referring to the rising trend of encounter cases Justice Rajendra Babu said, “the state should not decide who should live and who should die”.
According to the NHRC figures, there were 83 encounter cases in 2002-03. In 2003-04 it rose to 100, 122 in 2004-05, 157 in 2005-06 and already 301 in 2006-07.
UP tops the list with 836 encounter cases last year. Karnataka has 25 such cases.
The Commission with all its members held a three-day meeting in Patna last week to dispose off cases of human rights’ violation. The cases were relating to trafficking of women and children, manual scavenging and issues on health and education.