The NHRC has issued a notice to the Bihar government and the state's police chief over reports that an elderly man was allegedly beaten up in public by two women police personnel with batons in Kaimur district, officials said on Tuesday.
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The public servants purportedly "exercised their power in excess" and acted in a manner that was reasonably not connected with the discharge of official duty, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) observed in a statement.
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The NHRC has taken Suo Motu cognisance of a media report that "a 70-year-old man was publicly beaten up by two female police personnel with batons in Kaimur district of Bihar on January 20," a senior official said.
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The victim has been teaching in a private school and was on his way to the school when his cycle skidded and he fell on the road, causing a traffic jam for a moment, even as he was struggling to get up. The police personnel started beating him in full public view, the statement said.
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The commission has observed that the content of the media report as well as a video of the incident appears to raise a serious issue of the right to life and dignity of the victim.
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Public servants like them are required to be dealt with strictly and sensitised to handle such situations sensibly and with a humane approach, it said.
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Accordingly, the commission has issued notices to the Bihar chief secretary and the state's director general of police, seeking a detailed report within four weeks, the statement said.
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The report should include the present status of the FIR registered against the police personnel responsible and departmental action taken or proposed to be taken against them. The commission would also like to know about the present health status of the victim. The report must contain compensation, if any, paid to him, it added.
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The commission has further observed that the trauma of road accidents generally makes the persons involved in it, numb and nervous for a moment. In such situations, it becomes a moral duty of the citizens as well as police personnel present on the spot to help the victims instead of shouting and beating them, the statement said.