At Batla,NHRC report a ‘farce’

At Jamia Millia Islamia and in all of Batla House,people are shocked by the ‘transparent bias’ of the report,with their version not being taken into account at all while framing the report.

Batla House is steeped in mistrust and despair,as are the numerous families who live around L-18,the spot of the encounter last year. The report stated there was no violation of human rights during the encounter and the policemen were compelled to fire at the accused in “self-defence”. The NHRC also said there was no reason to discredit the police theory and preferred the case be closed.

“The NHRC did not even visit the spot. Their officials never came looking for eyewitnesses and wrote the report sitting in their offices. It is not acceptable to us,” said Abdul Rehman. Rehman was the caretaker of the building where the two terror suspects were staying .

At Jamia Millia,the teachers’ group is upset by the report. “Zia and Sakib are in prison. The NHRC could have questioned them,but they did not. The report does not include any of their comments. We did not expect the NHRC to come up with the truth,but here they are brazenly acting as the mouthpiece of the police,” said Tanveer Fazal,a lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies in Jamia. Fazal is a member of the teachers’ group that is lending support to the accused and demanding a judicial inquiry in the case. The group has decided to protest against the report outside the NHRC building on Friday,where they will once again raise the demand for a judicial probe into the encounter.

The Batla House residents’ association and will also hold a protest tomorrow,apart from other NGOs that had been pushing for a judicial inquiry.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations) also rejected the report,calling it ‘one-sided’.

“The hasty report seems to be solely based on the police briefing and papers submitted by the police. There is no indication of the commission contacting the relatives of the victims or residents of the area where the encounter took place,” AIMMM President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said.

More flak in store from civilian groups
Civilian groups,including the People’s Union for Democratic Rights,the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group expressed their disappointment with the “clean chit” given by the NHRC to the Delhi Police’s Special Cell on the Batla House encounter. The groups said they were appalled by the report and questioned why the committee,set up to address questions like the presence of injuries inflicted by blunt objects on the suspects’ bodies,did not address them at all. “The NHRC was supposed to conduct its own investigation into the matter but it has merely relied upon police reports,” they said. The statement,supported by writer-activist Arundhati Roy and lawyer Kamini Jaiswal among others suggested a Special Investigative Team be set up by the Delhi High Court to investigate the matter. “The time has come to seriously reexamine the manner of appointment of the members of the NHRC,and its powers. The present system of appointment by a committee of the Prime Minister,the Home Minister,the Speaker and Leader of Opposition is not working satisfactorily,” the groups said. —ENS

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