UP Police gets NHRC notice for harassing good Samaritan

The NHRC has issued notice to Uttar Pradesh Police over the alleged harassment of a man who saved the lives of two road accident victims, a statement said on Friday.

Citing media reports, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said that on August 9, Ritesh Gupta, an HR manager witnessed a hit and run case near Noida Phase 2 and took the injured - Yogendra, 21 and Tarun, 11, both residents of of Greater Noida - to a nearby hospital. He also informed their families.

However, police blamed Gupta for the accident and detained him for nearly 10 hours, it said, adding police even cooked up a story that they chased and caught Gupta and forced him to pay Rs.10,000 to the families of the injured while extorting Rs.2,000 in return for letting him go.

The commission has observed that the contents of the media report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights and has issued a notice to Uttar Pradesh's director general of police, seeking a detailed report within four weeks.