Police sat on rights panel order

MUMBAI: Despite orders from the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to probe Raj Thackeray's personal culpability in acts of violence that singed the city in January-February this year, the police are yet to take action.
Soon after members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) went on the rampage in January against north Indians, especially taxi drivers, activist Medha Patkar had urged the SHRC to investigate the MNS chief's role in the widespread rioting.
Thackeray was booked only in a single criminal case filed with the Vikhroli police and Patkar pointed out that this was not enough. She told the commission that as many as 70 cases of rioting had been lodged in police stations across the city but the investigators had ignored Thackeray's role in them.
"We told the SHRC that in many of those cases, Thackeray had played the role of an abettor in the crime and therefore should be named as an accused,'' said advocate Y P Singh. It was also argued that MNS men went on the rampage in a highly organised and planned manner and if there was evidence to show that their leadership had given them direction, then he must be brought to book as well.
The SHRC passed an order on May 12, 2008, asking the police to probe all 70 cases. It said that if evidence was found against Thackeray in any of them, then his name should be included in the FIR as well. "However, the commission did not set a deadline for the completion of the probe,'' said Singh.
Activists from Patkar's National Alliance For People's Movement (NAPM) decided in September to find out for themselves what the police had done in the matter. They filed a number of Right to Information pleas with the home department and city police seeking information about the investigation. "We recently got a reply from the police which flatly said that the matter was still under process,'' said Simpreet Singh of NAPM.