UP Police tops in human rights volation: survey

This is just not a singular case where an innocent man was killed in a fake encounter. The Uttar Pradesh police tops the list of human rights violations by the police in the country and reports from both the government agencies and the NGOs confirm this. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has stated in its recent report that for the past three years,Uttar Pradesh tops the chart in cases of fake encounters. And on Friday,when Human Rights Watch (HRW),an international NGO working on the issue of Human Rights,launched its report titled “Broken System — Dysfunction,Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police” in the state capital,the fact only got another testimony.

“During our research,we found that in a span of two and a half years,there have been some 932 cases of police atrocities in UP,of which 125 cases have gone to the court,” said Lenin Raghuvanshi of PVCHR,which collaborated with the HRW for the study.

Also present were Meenakshi Ganguly from the Asia office of HRW and Naureen Shah who researched 19 police stations of Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka,Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The researchers found that cases of police atrocities may be high in UP,but getting an FIR lodged in such cases under Section 197 of the CrPC is virtually impossible.

“It is basically the system which needs to undergo a change,” said Ganguly. “For the rural poor,it is impossible to prove that they are innocent and then,lodge a complaint against a police officer. Even a constable is God in villages in UP.”

Incidentally,even the police admitted that they do violate human rights every day and are often “ordered to commit encounter killings” to meet their targets. A constable in Uttar Pradesh had confessed: “Often it is our superiors to who ask us to do wrong things. It is hard for us to resist. I was once asked by my official to beat up someone. When I said that this man will never get bail and just rot in jail and hence,we should leave him,my officer got angry.”

The HRW was assisted by PVCHR for reports and cases from Eastern UP districts — Sonebhadra,Jaunpur,Allahabad,Chandauli,Mirzapur and Varanasi and by Uttar Pradesh Shaheri Gareeb Kaamgaar Sangharsh Morcha for cases from Lucknow,Sitapur,Barabanki,Bahraich and Hardoi. Apart from fake encounters,custodial deaths,unlawful detainment and rape in custody have also been reported in the study. “A UP cop told us that he could not remember when he last had a day off during his ten-year service,” Ganguly said. “He said he had barely slept for ten hours in three days and then commented that the pressure cooker is bound to burst.”