UP told to pay Rs 5 lakh to medico's family

NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the UP government to pay interim relief of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Sonali Bose, a medical student, who was shot dead by the police in a case of mistaken identity near Agra last year.
The state government felt that the relief amount was on the higher side. It contended that the killing was "due to negligence and over-enthusiastic action on the part of the police officers concerned".
It informed the commission that Rs 25,000 had already been sanctioned to Bose''s family and departmental action as well as criminal prosecution had been instituted against the guilty police officers.
But the commission felt that a "life which is battered and shattered by the action of the police, for which the state must be held vicariously responsible, cannot be compensated in terms of money".