The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is proving to be a thorn in the side of Yogi Adityanath’s drive to root out criminals and improve the law and order situation in the state which suffered from high rates of crime all these years. Till January, the state government had received as many as 9 notices from the NHRC on a range of issues.
The NHRC has questioned Yogi Adityanath’s approval of encounters as a policy towards restoring the law and order situation in the state. The NHRC had taken an objection to Yogi Adityanath’s remark that “criminals will be jailed or killed in encounters”.
In its statement on the matter, the commission seemed to admit that they have no solid reason to assume there has been a violation of human rights under the government but decided to take suo moto cognizance of the Chief Minister’s statement because they believed such an ‘endorsement’ of killing in encounters “may” lead to abuse of power.
A notice was also issued to the chief secretary of UP after dreaded gangster Sumit Gurjar, who had a bounty of Rs. 50000 on his head, was killed in an encounter, which was alleged as ‘fake encounter’ by some.
Spokesperson of the BJP, Shalabh Mani Tripathi had suggested that the NHRC should show some solidarity towards the policemen martyred during these encounters.
“Human Rights commission is a constitutional institution and we respect it. The commission is doing its job and the government is also doing its job. It is correct that the commission takes cognizance of the death of criminals and checks whether human rights were violated or not. But at the same time, our police personnel are also being martyred in encounters with criminals. I hope the commission will show some solidarity with them too,” he had remarked.
However, Yogi Adityanath seems resolved to carry forward with the current policy of his government towards crime. Until the 31st of December, 30 notorious criminals were eliminated by the police force and over 2000 criminals were arrested including 1688 accused who carried rewards. As many as 15 encounters were conducted in the space of 48 hours in February which led to the arrests of 24 wanted criminals and the death of a gangster.
