National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered compensation of ₹1 lakh each for several activists who have been wrongly charged by the Chhattisgarh Police and implicated in various cases.
Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar and seven members of a fact finding team from Telangana Democratic Front (TDF) are among those granted the compensation. Prof. Sundar and others were charged with murder of a tribal person, while cases were slapped under provisions of the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act against the TDF members when they tried to enter the State on a fact finding mission in December, 2016.
Under-trials
The team members had to spend several months in jail as under-trials before being granted bail, and later acquitted. Citing Chhattisgarh DGP’s testimony that the name of Prof. Sundar, along with those of Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari from Delhi’s Joshi Adhikar Sansthan, and Chhattisgarh Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sanjay Parate, and two others Manju and Mangla Ram Karma have been removed from the FIR as no evidence was found against them, the NHRC order noted that the persons must have suffered great mental pain and agony as a result of the false FIRs.
It was a violation of their human rights, and the State government should compensate them, the order said.
With regard to the seven members of fact finding team including Ch. Prabhakar, B. Durga Prasad, B. Ravindranath, D. Prabhakar, R. Lakshmaiah, Mohd. Nazir, and K. Rajendra Prasad, the Commission has noted that they had been acquitted of all charges by the chief judicial magistrate of Sukma.
Observing that the false FIRs caused them mental trauma and agony, the order directed the Chhattisgarh State government to pay ₹1 lakh compensation to each of them.
No payment so far
While the order dated March 13, 2020 said the compensation should be paid and proofs submitted within six weeks’ time, the duration has expired already with no payment so far.
Lockdown restrictions imposed in the backdrop of COVID-19 spread have delayed the arrival of a copy of the order, the petitioners informed.