New Delhi, January 07: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called for a probe into the issue of “illegal” picking up of Muslim youths in terror cases by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in the last week of November 2011. The rights panel has ordered the police to investigate the matter and submit a report within four weeks.
In a letter dated December 22, 2011, the NHRC has ordered the Sarita Vihar Deputy Commissioner of Police to “issue notice to the concerned authority calling for the report within four weeks.”
After that period, the rights panel will be free to take action on its own, the letter further said, a copy of which has also been sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police (Vigilance).
The NHRC response came after Faisal Khan, a social activist, had filed a written complaint against the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
In his written complaint to the NHRC, Khan had alleged that way the Special Cell picked up Gauhar Aziz Khomani and Mohammed Irshad Khan, the alleged members of ‘Indian Mujahideen,’ was in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines on arrests. Khan alleged that the police failed to inform their families even after several days of their arrests.
The Supreme Court’s directive as enunciated in the D. K. Basu Guidelines say that within 8-12 hours of making any arrests the police must inform the family of the person concerned about his arrest and the location where s/he has been kept by the police.
This was the first ever response of the NHRC to the arrests made on the name of terror, even though human rights activists ask the rights panel, why it wants the Delhi Police to investigate human right violations allegedly committed by the Delhi police itself.
Sources: Dailybhaskar.com