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NHRC Awards Compensation in Punjab Case
December 2, 2004 | Comments Off on NHRC Awards Compensation in Punjab Case
On November 15, in the Punjab illegal cremations matter, the National Human Rights Commission announced a reward of 2.5 lakhs (around $5,500) to 109 families (See list) whose next of kin had been illegally cremated by the police, with no admission of liability or inquiry into the facts. Although some hailed this as a positive development or a landmark ruling, this order could thwart the attempt to procure justice for those killed, not only in Amritsar, but throughout Punjab, by turning attention away from: an inquiry into the range of abuses and the system that allowed such abuses to occur, a complete determination of wrongdoing and liability, and compensation based on a full understanding of the different abuses suffered by survivors, among other issues. The law on compensation for victims of human rights abuses, particularly state deprivation of the right to life, remains weak. Thus, because the NHRC is in this case–for the first time–acting as a designated body of the Supreme Court, its decisions will serve as precedent for victims of human rights abuses all over India and give content to the rights to life and redress.
Families continue to insist on justice:
79 year old Pritam Singh recounts how his son Jagdeep was picked up from his in-laws’ house in Patti in Tarn Taran district in 1992.
Jagdeep was 26 then and newly married. He was interrogated and tortured for days and then killed in custody. His family wasn’t even given the body for cremation even though Pritam Singh himself was a sub-inspector in the Punjab police.
Now after a twelve year struggle, the Punjab police have admitted in an affidavit to the NHRC that Jagdeep was killed in their custody and the NHRC has ordered the state police to pay Rs 2.5 lakh as compensation to 109 families whose relatives died in police custody.
But Pritam Singh says he does not want compensation. He wants his sons killers who are still within the force to be punished.
“This is not enough. I want that those who took law in their hands, be punished by that very law. I don’t care about the compensation,” said Pritam Singh
The National Human Rights Commission should study the examples of other commissions across the world. While in 8 years, the NHRC has awarded 109 families with compensation, with no admission of liability or inquiry into the facts, the President of Chile recently awarded compensation to 28,000 survivors of torture based on the report (in Spanish) by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture established in November 2003. Additionally, this report was based on survivors’ testimonies, whereas the NHRC has yet to collect a single survivor’s testimony. The document lists 18 major types of torture, many of which were also implemented in Punjab by security forces, such as suffocation, electric shocks and repeated beatings. Human rights groups made further recommendations to the government of Chile upon the conclusions of the Commission’s work.
In late July, the NHRC began soliciting affidavits from families in Amritsar who believed their loved ones were illegally cremated in Punjab by security forces. To facilitate the collection of claims, it ordered the Punjab government to publish a list of illegal cremations, created by the CBI, representing cremations conducted at three crematoria in Amritsar district.
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