Excessive use of police force on civilians in Rajouri
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 30: Government has formally ordered an enquiry into allegations of brute police action on the civilians during tense situation in Rajouri district early last month and assigned the task to Additional Commissioner, Jammu, R K Bhagat with the directions to submit report within a period of 15 days.
The enquiry has been ordered by Law Department vide SRO No.156 to look into the unfortunate incident, which occurred at Rajouri on March 15, 2012 resulting in police action and injuries and damages to the properties of the civilians in the town.
The Additional Commi-ssioner, Jammu, R K Bhagat, who has been appointed as Enquiry Officer, has been asked to enquire into the circumstances leading to police action on March 15 which resulted into injuries and damage to the property of the civilians in Rajouri town. He has also been asked to enquire into the adequacy or otherwise of the force used on the civilians.
“The Enquiry Officer will also fix responsibility wherever excessive force, if any, has been used or where due care has not been taken to avoid such incidents”, official sources said, adding “Mr Bhagat will also suggest measures required to be taken to avert the recurrence of such incidents in future in the Rajouri town”.
They disclosed that Mr Bhagat has set in motion the process to conduct enquiry into the unfortunate incidents and is going to camp at Rajouri on May 3 and 4 from 10 am to 5 pm to get statements of the persons, who have any sort of information regarding the incidents.
“Anybody having any information about the incident or intends to get statements recorded can appear before the Enquiry Officer on these two days”, sources said, adding “the Government has also issued directions to the police as well as civil administration in Rajouri district to furnish whatever details relating to the incidents the Enquiry Officer seeks from them”.
When contacted, Mr Bhagat said, “initially I have decided to camp for two days but if the situation demands I will extend the stay beyond May 4”, adding “I will try to complete the enquiry within the prescribed time-limit but if the need arrises I will make request to the Government for some more time”.
Responding to a question, he said, “this will be an independent probe and will have nothing to do with the investigations already conducted by civil or police administration into the unfortunate incidents”.
An independent enquiry into the alleged use of brute force by police was one of the demands of minorities, which were conceded by the Group of Ministers on March 17.
It was only after the Group of Ministers comprising Minister for Industries, Surjit Singh Slathia, Health Minister, Sham Lal Sharma, Advisors to Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul and Devender Singh Rana and Minister of State for Power, Shabir Khan entered into an agreement with the representatives of minority community that complete normalcy was restored in the town after 10 days long tension.
As per the allegations, the IRP personnel had attacked the houses of minority community, caused injuries to the occupants and damaged their property.
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