Karnataka - Belgaum   

‘Majority of complaints received by rights panel concern police’

Belgaum: The majority of the complaints received by the National and State human rights commissions concern the police, said S.R. Nayak, Chairman, Karnataka State Human Rights Commission.

He was speaking after inaugurating the workshop-cum-seminar on human rights organised by the Northern Range of State police here on Tuesday. Mr. Nayak said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had made it mandatory to report to it any case of custodial death or rape within 24 hours and provide video footage of the post-mortem examination. The commission had also issued guidelines to the police on encounter deaths, lie detector tests, arrests and police-public relations, he said. “The guidelines of the NHRC are increasingly being subject to positive interpretation by courts,” he said. Speaking on the rights and quoting judgements of the Supreme Courts upholding human rights in various cases, he said human rights and obligations arising thereby would bind the nation and consequently all its authorities. Respect for human rights should become the creed of the nation and all the authorities of the State should reflect this creed by conduct and style of functioning. He expected the police, legal fraternity, government officials and social workers to cooperate with the commission to see that there were no violations of human rights in the State. “Let my hope not be defeated,” he added. Regional Commissioner Amita Prasad, Inspector-General of Police (Northern Range) Raghavendra Auradkar, senior officials of the Police Department, advocates, law students, medical practitioners and social workers were present.

The inaugural session was followed by lectures on various aspects of human rights and its violations, and a question-answer session.

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‘Majority of complaints received by rights panel concern police’

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