The father of the ill-fated girl Felani has rightly reacted on the verdict of the National Human Rights Commission of India when he said he would not mind taking the Rs 5 lakh compensation, but not in exchange of justice for killing of his daughter by the BSF Jawan.
He may be a poor person but not a miser he proved who can be bought with money to abandon the fight for justice. The father has held his head high and talked with dignity facing repeated denial of justice by the BSF court.
It appears he had expected that the Human Rights Commission of India would also give its opinion on the BSF court verdict without remaining confined to awarding the monetary compensation. So he showed respect to the offer of the Commission but made it clear that he can’t be bought with money.
“I want justice for the killing…….I will not mind receiving compensation, but not in exchange for justice,” he told the media as reported by national dailies on Tuesday.
Felani, a 15-year girl was shot and killed on January 7, 2011 by the BSF Jawan when she was crossing the barbed border into Bangladesh with her father in the Lalmonirhat district.
The BSF court has twice ruled that the Jawan was not guilty; but a retrial of the case is now waiting for hearing in the Indian Supreme Court on October 6.
Felani’s father gave his reaction to what a functionary of Kolkata based Banglar Manobadhikar Suraksha Manch mentioned about the offer of Human Rights Commission of India on Monday.
This organization is steering the Felani case with Indian establishments. He said, as reported in a national daily, that ‘monetary compensation can’t compensate the killing of a person. The Commission should have found the verdict of BSF court heartless and political and asked for full retrial of the case.’ He rightly expressed frustration with the verdict, as it did not give clear direction for full retrial of the case. But he should have gone further to expose the hatred and brutality involved in the killing of the child.
But the Commission in its remarks made it amply clear that the BSF Jawan has violated the BSF service code and policies in policing the border. The Commission verdict has been quoted as saying that there was no clear logical reason for the shootout killing of the girl.
It appears that the Human Rights Commission of India may have carefully kept away from cancelling the BSF court verdict although in analyzing the circumstances the Commission has dismissed any logic of the shootout.
Since the Indian Supreme Court is about to hear the case soon, the Commission appears to have left the judgment for it without intervening into it.
In fact the Human Rights Commission of India has given the verdict clearly stating that the girl was innocent and even under BSF code of conduct and policies, she can’t be shot and killed. Such opinion has clearly brought justice closer to the aggrieved father.
The fact is that if the Jawan has violated the rules, he can’t claim to be innocent and escape justice. It is for the Indian court to assert that justice against inhumanity is not a matter to be compromised.
