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Punjab asked to pay compensation to torture victim

The National Human Rights Commission directed the Punjab government to pay interim compensation of Rs 250,000 to a person who was falsely implicated in a theft case, and illegally detained and tortured by the Ropar police, causing him grave physical injury.

"Deeply distressed at the lawless behaviour of those who were duty-bound to maintain law and order," the NHRC directed the state to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the incident. It asked the Punjab government to initiate criminal proceedings against the police officials responsible for violating the fundamental right of life of the victim, Rajiv Rattan, and making him permanently disabled, NHRC sources said. The state government has been asked to file a compliance report by December 10, 1999.

Rattan, a cashier at the Sahauran branch of the Shivalik Kshetriya Gramin bank, had complained to the NHRC that the police had wrongly made him a suspect in the theft of Rs 395,000 from the bank locker in March 1995. This, though he had been on leave from February 21, 1995 after handing over charge to his bank manager.

The complainant alleged that the bank manager had embezzled the amount and tried to pass it off as a case of theft when it was detected on March 6, 1995. The police illegally confined Rattan from March 6, to March 19, 1995 at Kharar police station where he was tortured, resulting in him fracturing the neck of his femur, the complaint stated.

Rattan became disabled due to the injury and had to undergo major surgery. Taking cognisance of the complaint, the NHRC issued a notice to the Punjab government which sent an interim report of its department of home affairs and justice (human rights cell) in August 1996.

Denying the complainant's allegations against the police officials, the report suggested that the fracture could have been caused by "an accidental fall in the bathroom".

According to the report, Rattan was produced before the SHO of Kharar police station by some persons on March 9, 1995 and the police had let him off the same day after questioning. The report denied that the police had illegally detained him for 13 days and tortured him. However, on July 6, 1999 the NHRC directed its director-general (investigation) to probe the case and submit a report.

Since the case was four-and-a-half years old, the NHRC team had no direct evidence in form of requisite police records. They were either destroyed or not made available by the Ropar police.

However, the NHRC investigation team, after considering the statements of independent witnesses, bank correspondence, medical reports and the opinion of the doctor who treated Rattan, concluded that the complainant was illegally detained and tortured, resulting in him becoming disabled.

The report said the Punjab government's report was untenable that the victim was already suffering from a fracture when the police interrogated him. Then he would have been unfit to go to the police station for questioning as stated by the police, the NHRC sources said.

Besides Dr O N Nagi, head of the department of orthopaedics, PGI, who had examined Rattan, said the injury Rattan sustained could only happen under the circumstances that Rattan had described.

The NHRC took a serious view of attempts by the Punjab police to cover its wrongful actions and deplored the callousness displayed by it, evident from the time it took to submit its interim report.

Considering the pain -- both physical and mental -- suffered by the victim due to torture and the high cost of surgery he has to undergo every eight to ten years, the NHRC directed the Punjab government pay him the interim compensation of Rs 250,000 within four weeks.

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