No compensation from cops yet to illegal detainees

Panel ordered cops to pay Rs 25K each to 11 men who were picked up

Six months ago, the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission had ordered the police inspector and assistant sub-inspector of Byatarayanapura police station to pay Rs 25,000 to each of the 11 people they had illegally detained.

Following a complaint by Prakash Cariappa, fact-finding co-ordinator of South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (Sichrem) in January 2009, the commission passed the order in July 2015. 

Cariappa said in the last eight years of serving as a co-ordinator, he found most of the orders passed by the commission were obeyed. The Byatarayanapura police case was a serious one and the then chairman of had conducted the investigation.

The 11 people, including two minors, were illegally detained by police for petty crimes and it was found that the police were guilty. They had sought Rs 5,000 from each of the detainees to release them. “Although the commission passed a very stringent order directing the Home department to take disciplinary action against the two police officers and to pay Rs 25,000 to each of the detainees, the order has not been complied with till date,” he said.

He says normally in such cases, the police approach the High Court and get a stay on the commission’s order and when the victims are approached to appeal for their compensation, they turn hostile. In very few cases, the commission’s order is complied with when there is a serious violation of human rights and sometimes, the commission also recommends a CID inquiry. Again, the case is registered with the CID and kept pending with no action, he said.

However, the commission’s acting chairperson Meera C Saksena said there was always liberty to approach the court to appeal against the order.

“It is not true that most of the orders passed by the commission are not complied with. There have been many high profile cases where compensation has been paid,” she added.