UP pays Rs 3 lakh compensation in custody death

Uttar Pradesh government has paid Rs three lakh as interim relief to the family of a 24-year-old man after the NHRC held the police guilty of not providing him adequate medical help leading to his death.

Uttar Pradesh government has paid Rs three lakh as interim relief to the family of a 24-year-old man after the NHRC held the police guilty of not providing him adequate medical help leading to his death.

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The National Human Rights Commission recommended the state government pay the compensation after considering the case of Sanjeev, who died in May 2005 in a hospital after he was arrested in an attempt to murder case. The state government informed the Commission that it had paid Rs 60,000 each to the five kin of the deceased last month.

Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh police tops the list of complaints against police forces to NHRC from across the country in 2010-11.

According to the report given to the NHRC by the state administration, Sanjeev was arrested on May 23, 2005 in a case and produced before a court the next day which sent him to judicial custody. The NHRC noted that Sanjeev had a scuffle with his opponent during which he sustained injuries.

The Magisterial enquiry concluded that prima-facie, the police did not provide the victim proper and timely treatment and instead of taking the accused to a hospital, policemen took him to jail.

"If timely medical treatment would have been provided, the life of deceased Sanjeev could have been saved," the NHRC said, holding that the human rights of the deceased had been violated.