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I am writing to
seek the intervention of National Human Rights Commission
against the custodial death of lorry driver, Mailapalli Satya
Srinivasa Rao, 33 in Kotabommali police station in the Srikakulam
district of Andhra Pradesh on 1 March 2003. Mr Mailapalli
Satya Srinivasa Rao, 33, of Kovvuru in West Godavari district
was arrested in connection with diverting rice from a rice
mill. The police claimed that he had hanged himself.
Mr Rao and a broker,
Ch Nageswara Rao, of Vemagiri in Rajahmundry were arrested
by the Kotabommali police at Kovvuru on the morning of 1 March
2003 and brought to Kotabommali police station. While Nageswara
Rao was lodged in the lock-up, Srinivas was kept in the station
writer's room as the two quarrelled over who was responsible
for the events leading to the arrest while being brought to
Kotabommali.
Fearing that they
might clash in the lock-up, they were lodged separately. A
constable present in the station slept outside the room. The
body of Srinivas was found hanging from the hook of a fan
in the morning by a sweeper.
The police claimed
that Srinivas hanged himself from an old electric service
wire removed in the national highway expansion and kept in
the writer's room
The pertinent
question arises as to how victims commit suicide only inside
the police station.
I shall be grateful
if the NHRC could kindly intervene against the custodial death
of Mailapalli Satya Srinivasa Rao and take the following measures:
- Direct the State Government
of Andhra Pradesh to suspend concerned police personnel and
order a judicial inquiry into the custodial death of Mailapalli
Satya Srinivasa Rao;
- Direct the State Government
of Andhra Pradesh to provide the autopsy report which should
have been conducted in full conformity with the NHRC guidelines
on custodial deaths/rapes to the NHRC;
- Direct the State Government
of Andhra Pradesh to pay an interim compensation of Rs 500,000
(five lakhs) to the victim's family and the same be recovered
from the guilty police personnel;
- Direct the Government
of India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture
and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
and
- Take any other measures that the NHRC
deems fit.
Looking
forward to your kind intervention.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely
Suhas Chakma
Director
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