Chennai: The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has issued summon to the Esplanade police for its failure to find the stolen wheelchair of a disabled advocate at the Madras high court premises even after two months of his lodging a complaint.
Advocate Ramarajan (32) had moved the SHRC accusing the police officials of failure to pursue his petition and dodging action.
The advocate also sought compensation for the ‘mental agony’ he had been put through due to his loss of the wheelchair and the police failure.
In his petition to the SHRC, the physically challenge advocate said his wheelchair, which he normally parked under the staircase next to the family court in the Madras high court premises, went missing in September 2013.
“I immediately approached the Esplanade police for help. They did not take my complaint seriously and asked me to check myself across the court premises. When I suggested they could identify the thief by watching the CCTV images, they did not bother”, the lawyer said.
He alleged that the police made him to wait in the station for several hours.
“I suffered a lot without my wheelchair. But the police officials ill-treated me. They registered the FIR only after I complained to the city police commissioner”, Ramarajan told the SHRC.
When contacted, Esplanade inspector Rajesh said, “We did not ill-treat Ramarajan. We took all efforts to trace his wheelchair. We will send an appropriate response to the SHRC summon. The next step in this case is to issue a non-traceable certificate, if we are unable to trace the wheelchair.”
But the non-traceable certificate is useful only for the purpose of claiming insurance whereas Ramarajan had not insured his wheelchair.
