West Bengal: NHRC creates panel to probe post-poll violence complaints

KOLKATA: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has set up a seven-member panel to examine complaints of post-poll violence from Bengal.
The probe panel is led by NHRC member Rajiv Jain and includes National Commission for Minorities vice-chairperson Atif Rasheed, National Commission for Women member Rajulben L Desai, NHRC director general (investigation) Santosh Mehra, West Bengal Human Rights Commission registrar Pradip Kumar Panja, West Bengal Legal Services Authority member secretary Raju Mukherjee and NHRC deputy inspector general (investigation) Manzil Saini.
The panel will examine the 541 complaints with NHRC received till date and the 3,423 complaints received by WBLSA and also those made in future. The committee will submit a comprehensive report to the Calcutta High Court and point out the persons prima facie responsible for the crime and name officers who maintained “calculated silence” on the issue.
NHRC chairman Arun Mishra formed the panel after a five-judge HC bench directed the commission to probe the complaints on record. The larger bench had also urged the NHRC chairperson to include one representative each from the state rights panel and WBLSA.