NHRC hears 43 cases in Lucknow, recommends relief of Rs 70.5L

The National Human Rights Commission today took up 43 cases for hearing in the sitting of its two division benches and recommended monetary relief of Rs 70.5 lakh in 15 cases.
According to a press release here, 18 cases were heard in the bench of chairperson Justice K G Balakrishnan and member S C Sinha, whereas 25 cases were taken up by the bench of Justice D Murugesan and Justice Satyabrata Pal.
The cases were mainly of police action, including deaths in encounter and in custody violating human rights, in different districts of Uttar Pradesh.
An amount of Rs 70.5 lakh was recommended in 15 cases as monetary relief as the commission did not find police version convincing on the basis of the material and reports on record.

The amount included Rs 65.5 lakh in 12 cases of encounter, Rs 1 lakh each in two cases of death in police custody and Rs 2 lakh in a case of police inaction.
Out of 43 cases heard on the second day, 12 cases of encounter were from Lucknow, five were from Varanasi, six from Ghaziabad and two from Kushinagar and the rest were from other districts of the state.

In one of the two cases of encounter in Lucknow, the state government informed that it had decided to move against the recommendations of the commission, while in other it said that the recommendations had been accepted for payment of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the victim.

The commission has given further time to submit all the requisite reports in some cases asking government officials to come fully prepared.
The commission would meet the representatives of NGOs and senior government officials tomorrow.