A complaint about the possible human rights violation of journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police last month on charges of extortion, was on Saturday admitted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The complaint could be taken up within a week.
Mr. Verma was arrested from his home in Ghaziabad in the National Capital Region on October 27 on charges that he had a vulgar video of Chhattisgarh Public Works Department Minister Rajesh Munat that he was using for blackmail.
While Mr. Verma has said he had a pen drive of the video, Mr. Munat has termed it fake. Mr. Verma has maintained that he was targeted because he had the video. He denied making the calls to blackmail.
In his complaint to the NHRC, Madan Mohan Priye, a Delhi-based lawyer, said the police had been hasty to act against Mr. Verma, leading to a violation of his human rights as well as the freedom of the press. He asked the NHRC to issue instructions to the Director-Generals of police of Chhattisgarh as well as Uttar Pradesh to protect Mr. Verma’s interests and take any other action keeping in view the facts of the case.
As of Saturday, the complaint was “under consideration”, as per the NHRC. According to an NHRC official, the complaint could be taken up within a week, though a date had not been fixed.
