A day after the October encounter, the NHRC took suo motu cognizance of media reports and sought detailed reports from top civil and police officials of the state.
Seven months after the Madhya Pradesh government's controversial elimination of eight under-trial operatives of the banned Students' Islamic Movement in India (SIMI), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has begun recording the statements of other operatives lodged in prison in Bhopal.
Eight operatives were involved in a jail-break and were subsequently killed in an ensuing encounter on October 31 last year.
A day after the October encounter, the NHRC took suo motu cognizance of media reports and sought detailed reports from top civil and police officials of the state.
The latest controversy that brings the NHRC in the picture follows complaints from the relatives of the under-trials who were allegedly being tortured. On May 24, the wives and relatives of some of the 21 SIMI suspects had met NHRC member Justice (retired) D Murugesan in New Delhi and complained that they were being brutally beaten up and threatened with death by jail authorities. Farzana, who met the NHRC team in Delhi, said that her husband is being tortured and forced to chant anti-Islamic slogans.
However, the Jail Superintendent, Dinesh Bhargava, denied ill-treatment. "We have provided the documents and evidence against the allegations to the NHRC's delegation," he said. The MP government has had a chequered performance on the SIMI activists. Earlier, its laxity allowed SIMI to spread its presence in the state. Mocking the ban imposed 17 years ago, the organisation spread its presence to 21 out of 51 districts in the state. The organisation had its activities in three districts before the BJP government took over 13 years ago. The SIMI had first executed a jail break in October 2013 and the escapees allegedly carried out explosions in Roorkee, Pune,Chennai and Bangaluru.
Then four of the escapees were arrested and brought to Bhopal jail. On October 13, they were again said to have broken the jail and were gunned down.
Home minister Babulal Gaur had raised the issue of the growing network of SIMI three years ago.
Even while the state government instituted an inquiry commission headed by retired judge SK Pandey after last year's encounter, it felicitated the policemen involved in gunning down the operatives.
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