AMN / New Delhi
A ten-member high-level fact-finding committee Delhi Minority Commission chaired by M.R. Shamshad, Advocate-on-Record, Supreme Court of India, has started its work in the area.
About 30 volunteers assisting the committee are surveying the whole affected area to record the actual damage, using elaborate forms provided by the Commission. They are filling these assessment forms to register the damage to properties and to record the dead and injured during the violence.
This is being done door-to-door by going to the victims’ houses, shops and camps. A receipt is issued to each assessee. DMC will track those who do not get compensation or whose FIRs are not being registered by police. DMC will take action so that justice is done to all victims.
The DMC fact-finding committee is in contact with victims, police and local administration to reach the facts behind the violence and its aftermath. DMC has also placed a help desk at Mustafabad Eidgah where volunteers including advocates are present whole day. Victims can approach this desk for any help to fill forms, lodge FIRs or get relief, etc. DMC has also placed 40 notice boards all over the violence-affected area announcing the formation of the fact-finding committee and giving helpline numbers to contact the committee which are: 8076282502 / 9540060606 / 9717455303.
DMC Chairman Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, Member Kartar Singh Kochhar and Anastasia Gill are paying regular visits to the area to help victims and reassure them. AMC volunteers with the help of Action Aid and other NGOs are distributing relief to victims. For any help, DMC helpline numbers should be contacted.
DMC has also issued a number of notices to Delhi Police about the violence in the North-East district. These include a warning to it to desist from haphazard arrests of youth from the North East district. The Commission told DCP North East that if these do not stop and the Commission gets documented cases, legal action will be taken against those responsible. Another notice to DCP North East asked him to provide the Commission with a complete list of all violence-related FIRs registered since 23 February 2020, as well as copies of all complaints to this effect which were not converted into FIRs.
The Commission also sent to DCP North East four photographs of a lynching case on 24 February 2020 where clearly identifiable persons, including one identified as Anant Bhardwaj, are seen lynching one Muhammad Zubair at an underpass near Bhajanpura market. The Commission has asked DCP North-East what action has been taken in this case and if not, why? The Commission has also asked District Magistrate North East to provide it with a complete list of all compensation forms filed by victims with SDMs of the affected areas.