The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has severely indicted the Union Home Ministry, the Delhi Government and the Delhi Police for their responses to its notices, recommending Rs.5 lakh as relief to the next of kin of each of the five persons killed in the May 2006 encounter in the Capital.

“On the basis of the material on record, the Commission has found the encounter doubtful. The Commission had earlier registered a case on the basis of intimation from the father of one of the victims,” said an official. Those killed in the encounter were identified as Ayub, Babu, Sanjay, Aslam and Manoj.

The Commission has set aside the contention of the Home Ministry that the Delhi Police have “amply proved that the encounter was genuine and therefore, no justification for the relief”. It has also deplored the “intransigence of the authorities concerned for refusing to accept its recommendation to hold a CBI enquiry in this case” which, it felt was essential.

The Commission has observed that in 2003, it had issued guidelines to all the States to hold magisterial enquiries in the aftermath of any encounter wherein there was a loss of life. All State governments have accepted these guidelines and act on them.

“The egregious exception is in the National Capital Territory, where the Delhi Police, which appears to be deeply apprehensive of any impartial scrutiny of its actions, opposes magisterial enquiries and has an extraordinary veto on these decisions. There was total non-cooperation from the Delhi Government. The police did not forward all the relevant documents to the Commission, such as seizure memo of the articles seized from the scene of occurrence and crime scene map. There was no explanation for non-collection of scientific evidence,” said the official.

The NHRC observed that “this self-serving evasiveness of the Delhi Police is supported by the Union Home Ministry, though it is the nodal ministry for the protection of human rights in India. This is a sad reflection on the Delhi Police and on the Ministry’s understanding of its responsibilities on human rights. In this case, as usual, no magisterial enquiry was held.”

“The Commission, therefore, had to use its powers under Section 13 (1) (e) of the Protection of Human Rights Act to direct the District Magistrate, North-East Delhi, to conduct an inquiry.” The inquiry recommended a CBI probe.

“The other claim made by the Home Ministry was that the persons killed had serious criminal records. The Commission reminds the Ministry that under the law, criminals cannot be summarily executed. It was for the police to establish that these men were killed in the exercise of the right of self-defence. This they have failed to do…,” said the NHRC, directing that the proof of payment be submitted by April 17.