Relief for Ranchi businessman’s widow

Terming the state’s contention as “unfortunate”, National Human Rights Commission said “immediate interim relief” envisaged under the Protection of Human Rights Act has to be granted for the injury/loss which the victims or members of the family have suffered owing to the violation of human rights by public servants.

“By no stretch of imagination can it be argued that the establishment of culpability absolves the state from making payment ofcompensation,” it observed.

In her petition, Rita Dhawan had alleged “outrageous” violation of human rights by some police officials of Bihar when her husband and his colleagues were returning from Varanasi to Ranchi in December 1993 in a Maruti van.

Near Civil Lines police station, a little distance from Ranchi, their van was surrounded by six police officials led by sub-inspector Doodh Nath Ram who demanded Rs one lakh from Rajesh, the petitioner said, adding the occupants of the vehicle were shot at point blank range and killed when the demand was not met.

It was alleged that the police officers removed the gold chain, rings and wristwatch from Rajesh’s body and looted other valuable articles from the van, NHRC sources said adding there was resentment in Ranchi over the incident and a bandh was observed in the city.

The Commission closely monitored the case and each of the accused police officials was awarded death sentence by the first additional sessions judge, Gaya, in September1996.

Besides Doodh Nath Ram, they included sub-inspector Brajla Prasad Sinha, sub-inspector Victor Mithilesh, head constable Tulsi Ram, constable Dinesh Singh and Dev Narain Raman, the sources said.

Later, on an appeal and reference for confirmation of death sentence, the Patna High Court, while upholding the conviction of the six accused, confirmed the death sentence on three of them and converted the sentence of death of others to life imprisonment, they said.

The National Human Rights Commission held that Rita Dhawan needed immediate interim relief by the state government and accordingly issued a notice to the state for payment of Rs 10 lakh as compensation.

In its response in December 1997, the Bihar government pleaded that as the accused had already been convicted. Therefore, there was no justification for paying compensation to Rita Dhawan, the Government said, adding that this would cause “unnecessary financial burden on the state,” according to sources.