Collateral damage in hunt for brigand

NEW DELHI: According to a startling report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Joint Special Task Force of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu police killed at least 36 villagers and tribals and raped, tortured and harassed 53 others before getting forest brigand Veerappan in its 11 years of operation.

Ordering an interim relief payment to the victims, NHRC chairman Justice (Retd) Shivraj V Patil said the Commission was yet to apply its mind to the issue of identifying the guilty police officers and suggesting action against them. "The very fact that we have found atrocities means there would be officers guilty of excesses. We now have to decide how to go about identifying them and fixing the responsibility," he said.

The NHRC has ordered the two state governments to disburse an interim relief totalling Rs 2.80 crore to the victims of atrocities committed by the joint special task force (JSTF).

According to Patil, the commission has ordered payment of Rs 5 lakh each to next of kin of those killed by the JSTF in 'suspicious encounters'.

A lady who was subjected to rape repeatedly over a long period at different places was also awarded a relief of Rs 5 lakh.

The NHRC has also ordered interim relief ranging between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh to other victims who suffered permanent disability and illegal detention and torture. One of the victims was also reported to have disappeared and his family was to be given Rs 3.5 lakh.

The commission's order followed response of the state governments on report of the Sadasiva panel that it had set up to probe the complaints of atrocities by the JSTF.

While the number of victims was only 15 to 20, the Justice Sadasiva panel - after recording a number of 193 victims, four representatives of NGOs and 38 police officers - came up with a list of 89 victims in December 2003, ten months before Verappan was killed.

The report was sent to state governments for their perusal. Initially, the state governments raised technical objections but agreed when the NHRC impressed upon them the need to look at the matter from a human rights perspective.

The state goverments will disburse the relief at the earliest, but the Commission for its part has said it should be completed within four weeks, Justice Patil said. The state governments have earmarked Rs 5 crore each for redressal of atrocities committed by the JSTF, he said.

The NHRC has asked them to expend the remaining amount in carrying out development works such as roads, schools and hospitals in the areas where the brigand was operating and where the villagers had suffered atrocities.

TN, Karnataka govts mum on verdict

Arun Ram/Bhargavi Kerur 

CHENNAI/BANGALORE: Henri Tiphagne of NGO People's Watch, one of the first to move the NHRC, welcomed the verdict and hoped compensation would be given to victims of the JSTF atrocities and the officers responsible would be prosecuted. But the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments refused to comment.

Relief and compensation package has been ordered to only those who had deposed before the Sadasiva panel which went into the allegations of the JSTF atrocities.  While police officers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka remained tight-lipped on the issue, a senior Tamil Nadu official, who once served in the JSTF, told DNA that the compensation need not be construed as an indictment of the STF.

"After we had done away with Veerappan, I had indirectly suggested that compensation may be given to some people without finding fault with the force or affecting its morale," he said. According to a former STF official, the verdict did not mean that the charges had been proved.