Six months after the National Human Rights Commission recommended compensation for 13 social activists, academics and lawyers accused in false cases, the Chhattisgarh government was working on sanctioning the amount within a week, according to NHRC officials on Sunday.
The NHRC had closed the case on February 13, giving the State six weeks to pay the compensation and file a compliance report. The Commission had taken suo motu cognisance of the harassment of the human rights defenders, including Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Archana Prasad, by the police in Bastar in 2016.
The NHRC had observed: “In our considered opinion, these persons would have certainly suffered a great mental pain and agony as a result of registration of false FIRs against them by the police, which is a violation of their human rights and for this the State Government should compensate them.”
However, due to the pandemic and lockdown in March, the process had been delayed, NHRC officials said.
NHRC spokesperson Jaimini Kumar Srivastava said the officials concerned had been in touch with the Chhattisgarh officials, who informed them that the State government was processing the sanction and that it would be done in a week. After that, the district Magistrate concerned would release the amount.
The NHRC had taken up the case in 2016 when the Chhattisgarh police filed an FIR in a murder case against the six activists, including the two professors. The charges were later withdrawn as there was no evidence and the victim’s wife said she never named Prof. Sundar and the others. The team of lawyers from Telangana were acquitted in another case.
