NHRC notice to UP police over delay in RTI-activist abduction case

New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Tuesday issued a notice to Uttar Pradesh police over the slow progress of their investigation in the case involving the abduction and assault on an RTI activist in Gautam Budh Nagar.

According to an NHRC release today, notices were served to the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police and to the Senior Superintendent of Police of Gautam Budh Nagar seeking a report in the matter in two weeks` time. NHRC acted after taking suo motu cognisance of a media report that RTI activist Anoop Singh was on December 13 abducted from Dankaur town in Gautam Budh Nagar district and allegedly tortured by the abductors who later released him in a neighbouring district after four days. Although an FIR has been registered, local police is alleged to be treating the case as a routine affair. Singh has filed several RTI petitions, mostly on infrastructure projects, and is a well-known whistle-blower in the area. NHRC observed that the contents of the media reports, carried on December 19, if true, raised serious concerns of human rights violations.