UP ordered to pay Rs.3 lakh damages to arrested youth

The NHRC has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to give compensation to a youth who was wrongfully imprisoned for over two years by the state police in 2009, a statement said Monday.

According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the chief secretary of the state has been asked to pay Rs.3 lakh to Sanjay Sharma, a resident of Ferozabad district, who was arrested under the Gangster Act in October 2009 and jailed for more than two years. Sharma was released in October 2011.

"The chief secretary has been asked to submit a compliance report along with proof of payment within six weeks. He has also been directed to submit the action taken report against the then station house officer," the NHRC said.

Sharma was released after a human rights activist approached the commission in August 2011 and sought its intervention in the case.

The NHRC then issued a notice to the senior superintendent of police of Ferozabad, who in a report submitted to the commission admitted that Sharma was indeed wrongfully arrested.

"Police were on a lookout for an accused named Sanjay Yadav who was 48 years old and lived in the same district. But the then station house officer knowingly arrested Sanjay Sharma despite differences in age and residential address," the commission said.

"This was a gross violation of Sanjay Sharma's human rights," it added.