The Hindu : NHRC rejects Madhu Sharma's plea

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002

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NHRC rejects Madhu Sharma's plea

New Delhi Aug. 19. The National Human Rights Commission today rejected the complaint of Madhu Sharma, wife of the police officer, R. K. Sharma — prime accused in the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar — against the Delhi Police for harassing and torturing her family members, on the ground that it could not do anything to help her as her husband was an absconder.

Ms. Sharma met the NHRC Director-General (Investigation), Y. S. Sharma, to make a personal plea. She later told presspersons that the Commission had refused her request saying that it could do nothing as her husband was an absconder. "He (R.K. Sharma) is not an absconder. They don't know what is an absconder in legal terms. Besides, we had not approached the NHRC for him. We had approached it to ensure our own safety... We had approached it as the last resort to get justice. But here also we did not get justice as the Government is not on our side. We have no rights,'' she said.

The NHRC official had told her that the Commission had no teeth as it depended on the Government for the implementation of its orders. ``What happens to those who fight the Government? Do we have no civil rights in this country?''

Ms. Sharma had sent a complaint on August 12 to the NHRC stating that her family was being "terrorised and threatened" by the Delhi Police. ``Even my (would-be) son-in-law, Amresh Mishra, who is a known writer, was not spared. He was picked up by police last week and told that they would name him as the fourth accused in the case,'' she alleged.

`They will kill us'

Expressing the fear that the Delhi Police wanted to "eliminate'' her family, she said "we sought protection from the NHRC, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Chief Justice of India. But there is nobody to protect us.''

The Delhi Police, meanwhile, denied that the PMO had sought a status report on the probe and said it would take a decision on declaring Mr. Sharma a Proclaimed Offender after tomorrow's hearing on his anticipatory bail in the Delhi High Court.— UNI, PTI

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