In a report, the committee also indicted the Delhi government for allegedly failing to rehabilitate victims properly even four months after the violence. The report was submitted to the Delhi government last week.
The panel, headed by Supreme Court advocate MR Shamshad, said the violence was specifically targeted at Muslim women in the eight riot-affected areas of North East Delhi, as they had taken the lead in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Many of them have lost social and economic security after the riots, it said.
The committee was constituted by the Delhi Minorities Commission in March to investigate the riots that claimed 53 lives and left more than 400 injured.
Except for the death and injury cases, the government’s disbursal of compensation appears “delayed and disproportionate” to the claims, the report said. “In several instances, the verification process of damage/loot/arson has not been completed even after a period of four months after the violence. Where verification has been done, either no interim compensation has been paid or only meagre amounts have been paid as ‘interim compensation’,” it said.
The panel has asked for the constitution of a five-member independent committee to address the issues faced by the victims — such as non-registration of FIRs, recording of victim statements and charge sheets that “have left out many facts” — and ensure expedition of compensation proportionate to the damage.
Citing what it called a pattern of deliberate inaction by the Delhi Police for several days, the report said: “In multiple testimonies, victims of violence have reported that FIRs have either been delayed or have not been acted upon. In some cases, victims themselves have been arrested. In some instances, victims have said that they are being asked to ‘compromise’ with the accused persons named by them in their complaints.”