New Delhi: The NHRC has asked the Ministry
of Home Affairs to pay Rs three lakh as monetary relief to the
next of kin of a person who was killed during "indiscriminate"
firing by BSF personnel in Mizoram in 2006.
The rights body has also asked the Ministry to pay Rs
50,000 each to those seven persons who suffered injuries in
the same incident.
BSF personnel of 105th Battalion had opened fired at an
unruly mob in Bhulung Churi in Lunglei district, killing one
Gubalya Chakma and injuring seven others on April 15, 2006,
NHRC noted from an inquiry report submitted to it by the
para-military force in connection with the incident.
The inquiry was conducted by DIG (Operations) BSF.
The incident occurred when security personnel had gone to
the village to free Assistant Commandant Ummed Singh Mehta
from the clutches of the locals.
The villagers had kept Mehta in their captivity and beat
him up as he had manhandled a Buddhist monk in the area, the
rights body observed in the inquiry report.
The report said the BSF personnel first tried to disperse
the mob by firing in air as villagers started pelting stones
at them on their arrival, NHRC noted.
"After considering the facts and circumstances of the
case, the National Human Rights Commission observed that the
report is suggestive of violation of human rights of Gubalya
and the injured by the BSF personnel," NHRC said.
Therefore, NHRC recommended that the Ministry of Home
Affairs, Government of India pay monetary relief to the
deceased's next of kin and the injured persons, the Commission
said, adding it has also asked for a compliance report.
The rights body took up the matter on the basis of a
complaint filed by a human rights activist Suhas Chakma.
NHRC said that it was informed that a case was registered
against BSF personnel in connection with the incident and they
were tried by General Security Force Court (GSFC) on the 12th
January, 2007.
The GSFC ordered forfeiture of 10 years' past service for
the purpose of calculating pension as punishment to Mehta.
Inspector N B Bhat was sentenced to forfeit 3 years' of
service for the purpose of promotion.
Gyanabaran Chakma son of deceased Gubalya was appointed
as a 'safai karamchari' (cleaner) on compassionate grounds in
the BSF as "an immediate and long term relief", the rights
body said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 29, 2009, 22:44