NHRC recommends aid of Rs 7 lakh to complainant

New Delhi, Apr 1 (UNI) The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended to the Bihar Government to pay Rs seven lakh compensation to a person who was critically injured during indiscriminate firing by police in July 97.

It also directed the Bihar Chief Secretary to submit a compliance report alongwith proof of payment within eight weeks.

Mr Kamleshwar Prasad Jaiswal, who was passing by the police post in Motihari City area on his scooter, was hit by a bullet, fired by police personnel, on his face His jaw was destroyed and face totally disfigured.

Even after 22 surgeries his condition could not become normal till December 2007, when he approached the Commission, and had to depend on an apparatus fitted in his neck for breathing.

According to the averments made in the complaint, ten more surgeries are required for restoration of normal health.

In its recommendations, the Commission said the complainant had to pass through untold physical and mental suffering as a consequence of an act of indiscretion on the part of police personnel.

''He received bullet injury on his face. The locus of injury sufficiently indicates that the police neither exercised caution nor abided by the norms which should be ordinarily followed. The Commission is therefore convinced that the State must redress the suffering caused to the complainant,'' it said.

The NHRC said the local police itself appears to be aware of the gravity of the situation and that can be the only reason why it did not raise the objection of limitation at any stage.

''The denial of monetary relief at this stage will be a negation of the very concept of human rights and it will defeat the purpose of the Protection of the Human Rights Act,'' it said.

The Commission had issued notice to the Bihar Government requiring it to show cause why monetary relief should not be given to the complainant.

The State government had not responded to the Show Cause notice as well as reminders.

UNI NR RR VC2005