Yogi Adityanath government gets 14 NHRC notices

Lucknow: In what could be a record of sorts, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has been served 14 notices by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the past 12 months.

According to official sources, the notices have been served for violation of human rights during police encounters in Ghaziabad, Noida, use of police forces on girl students in Banaras Hindu University last year, deaths of children in BRD hospital in Gorakhpur due to shortage of oxygen and the use of a severed leg as a pillow for a patient in Jhansi medical college.

One of the most strongly worded notices received by the state government relates to the Saharanpur incident in January this year in which two minor boys were injured in a bike accident but the local police refused to take them to the hospital saying that their vehicle would get dirty. The boys were later taken to the hospital by the local people in a tempo but they had already bled to death by then.

Another NHRC notice relates to the incident in August last year in Balrampur district in which a young couple had eloped to Mumbai and had got married there.

The girl’s father lodged a kidnapping report and the couple were brought back to the district by the cops who locked them up in separate lock-ups, claiming that they were minors. A police official allegedly raped the girl in the lock up and no complaint was registered in this regard.

The court later ruled that the couple was above 18 years of age and eligible for marriage. The erring cops did not face any action. The NHRC has also sent notices to the state government in cases of fake encounters, especially the ‘killing’ of Sumit Gujjar in Greater Noida.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, on the other hand, has repeatedly defended the police and said that the encounters were genuine.