By Kashif Ahmed Faraz, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 21 Oct 2014: The government agencies like police continue to flout constitutional norms while engaging in encounters or extra-judicial killings, a workshop for training citizens to spread awareness on legal aspects of shootouts for protection of civil rights observed here.
“Dual standard is followed in encounter cases. Instead of filing an FIR against operating team of encounter, the police files FIR against the deceased. Due to the death of that person, the closure report is filed without investigation and hence the police personnel get impunity in such cases,” Adv Abu Bakr Sabbaq said.
He was addressing an APCR (Association of Protection of Civil Rights) meet in Jamia Nagar on 19 Oct. The meet rued over rising number of such cases in metro cities besides Jammu and Kashmir and north east.
“The meet called Encounters and Civil Rights Protection in India was organized to train volunteers about legal aspect of encounters,” a rights activist associated with APCR told IndiaTomorrow.net.
He further explained the recent guidelines of Supreme Court “weakened” the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)’s recommendation on encounters.
Speaking on Encounter and Civil Rights Protection Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, National Coordinator of APCR said extra judicial killings in metro cities Delhi and Mumbai are high besides Jammu and Kashmir and north east, according to the data provided by NHRC and National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).
He asked the volunteers to do fact finding if such incident occurs in their area and monitor the procedure to be follow and if there is any violation of procedure then manage the representation and move the complaint to the concerned authority to get justice for victim’s family.
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Kashif Ahmed Faraz is Delhi based freelance journalist and can be reached at [email protected].
