Rights group against ex-police officer's appointment to rights panel

A civil rights group has sent a legal notice to the Mamata Banerjee government seeking revocation of a former top policeman's appointment to the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC).

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), in the notice sent Tuesday, threatened that if the appointment of former director general of state police Naparajit Mukherjee was not revoked it would approach the Calcutta High Court.

The APDR has been opposing Mukherjee's appointment as his tenure as the top policeman was marked by "several cases of police firing, fake encounters and numerous human rights violations", many of which are being probed by the rights panel.

"As a member of the WBHRC how can he judge his own crimes?" APDR secretariat member Ranajit Sur asked.

Copies of the legal notice have been given to the chief minister, assembly speaker Biman Banerjee and leader of the opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra among others. A week's time has been given for the revocation.

Both Banerjee and Mishra along with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were part of a three-member panel who Oct 21 appointed Mukherjee as a WBHRC member.

Mishra, however, claimed he did not support Mukherjee's appointment.

"WBHRC is meant to give relief to the inappropriate and unwarranted action of the police and security forces and human rights activists are in discomfort when they find they have to seek justice from the very machinery of the police (as one of its senior officials) is sitting in the human rights commission," the APDR said in the notice.

A copy of the notice has also been sent to President Pranab Mukherjee and state Governor M.K. Narayanan.