Allahabad high court orders NHRC to probe December 15 police action at Aligarh Muslim University

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad high court on Tuesday directed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to launch a probe into the police action at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on December 15, where scores of students were injured at an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest.
Hearing a PIL filed by one Mohd Aman Khan of Allahabad, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Vivek Varma further directed that the NHRC shall treat memo of this petition for the purpose of inquiry/investigation as complaint submitted to it.
Directing to list the PIL for further hearing on February 17, the court directed the Commission to complete the process of inquiry expeditiously as far as possible within a period of one month. The court also directed the Commission to convey its findings and recommendations, if any, to this court immediately after conclusion of the inquiry.
Passing the above directives, the court observed, "The facts of the instant case indicate alleged violation of human rights and also alleged negligence in the prevention of such violation. We have not looked into the video footage, which are said to be available with the petitioner and compact disks, which are placed on record by the respondents along with counter."
"However, the photographs annexed with the petition reflect certain serious happenings which are termed by the petitioner as brutal, violation of human rights that also amounts to commission of cognizable crime. The narration of facts certainly demands a probe," the court added.
Alleging display of police brutality upon students, this petition was filed requesting the court to pass several directions, including setting up of a court-monitored committee to have judicial inquiry into the acts of violence and arbitrary detention of students by the state police and pare-military forces at AMU from December 12, 2019 to December 15, 2019.