SHRC orders against police officials set aside

A division bench comprising Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice N Sathish Kumar said, “The commission has given undue importance to the contrary stand taken by the police personnel in their counter. Merely because some inconsistency is found in the counter filed by the personnel that cannot be a ground to presume alleged violation of human rights. Here is the case wherein the complainant has specifically alleged that she was forcibly removed from her house on April 14, 2007 which itself is found to be false.”

The issue pertains to a complaint filed by J Meenambal, a resident of Pensioners Lane, New Farhans Road alleging that she was forcibly moved out of her house by the police personnel and many valuables kept in the house were stolen in her absence. She wanted the commission to act against the officials for the alleged human right violation.

Denying the allegations, the police contended that Meenambal has filed the complaint by suppressing the fact that her son-in-law who resides in the same house has been arrested for the murder of their neighbour Mahesh.

But rejecting the submissions, the SHRC directed the state to pay the compensation and recover it from the three police officers.

Aggrieved, Prakash, Inspector of Police, Kolathur Police Station; Vijayakumar, Inspector of Police, Thammampatti Police Station, Salem District and another Sub- Inspector of Police R Subramanian, moved the High Court challenging the order.

However, the bench on pointing out to various flaws in the complaint including the delay in filing the complaint and the fact that one of the officers did not even take charge in the police station while the other was not present in the place of incident as he was deputed for other duty, set aside the SHRC’s orders.