NHRC Orders Assam Govt To Pay 1 Lakh To Man Beaten For Selling Beef

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the government of Assam to pay Rupees 1 lakh to a person who was last year thrashed by a mob for selling cooked beef at his tea stall in the Biswanath district.

Besides ordering the said compensation for Shaukat Ali (48), the victim who was roughed up by the mob in the presence of a few policemen at the Madhupur weekly market in Biswanath Chariali on April 7 for selling something which is not prohibited in the state, the commission also pulled up the Chief Secretary for not responding to a show-cause notice.

It also took a serious note of the fact that the DGP hasn't submitted he action taken report against the guilty police officials in the case.

As per a PTI report, turning up the heat against the DGP, the commission has warned that if the DGP fails to submit the report within four weeks, action would be initiated against him by the rights body.

The report quoted NHRC as saying in a letter, "The Commission has not received reply or any response to show cause notice from the concerned authority which led Commission to observe that the concerned authority has nothing to urge upon the Commission with regard to the show cause notice."

"Therefore, the Commission confirms its recommendation and directs to the Chief Secretary, Government of Assam to release amounting to Rs 1,00,000 to the victim Shaukat Ali and submit a report along with proof of payment to the Commission within six weeks," the letter further said.

In the show-cause notice sent by the commission earlier, it noted that "prima facie it is a case of violation of human rights othe victim for which the state is vicariously liable to compensate the victim"

"The victim was found insulted and disgraced on basis of caste/religion, therefore, human rights of the victim were violated by collecting revenue by a public servant i.e. profession tax collector illegally. Police has apprehended 15 persons and forwarded them to judicial custody," NHRC further said citing the show-cause notice.