54 ... ... ... ... .. C I V I L L I B E RT I E S quarters of the year, in respect of allegations of violations of human rights by personnel of the para-military forces. The 'nil' reports appear to be indicative of a lack of seriousness on the part of those who are meant to monitor allegations of possible human rights violations by members of the para-military forces. If the number of complaints received by the Commission alleging violations of human rights by personnel of the para-military forces is any indication, it seems inconceivable that no such complaints were received directly by any of the para-military forces or by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Commission therefore urges the Ministry of Home Affairs to look into this matter with greater care and sensitivity than appears to be the case at present. 4.35 The Commission also continued to monitor and act upon complaints received from North-Eastern States. In one important case, which the Commission had pursued since 1997, when a complaint was received from the Chairman, Kuki Movement for Human Rights, alleging that a certain Haosinglun Changsam had been kidnapped and subsequently murdered on 7 March 1997 by personnel of 32 Rashtriya Rifles in Charachaud district of Manipur, the Commission concluded that the injuries caused to the deceased appeared to have been the result of close range firing on a vital part of the body, rather than the result of cross-firing in the dark when the deceased supposedly attempted to escape from the custody of the army. Upon considering the response received from the Ministry of Defence, the Commission concluded on 8 August 2002 that a sum of Rs. 1,00,000 be paid to the next-of-kin of Haosinglun Changsam as monetary relief and issued a directive to that effect. B] Custodial Deaths 4.36 The curbing of custodial violence has been a major objective of the Commission ever since it was established. It will thus be recalled that, as early as 14 December 1993, the Commission issued instructions that it must be informed of any incident of custodial death or rape within 24 hours of its occurrence; it was added that the failure to report promptly would give rise to the presumption that an attempt was being made to suppress the incident. In subsequent instructions, it was stated that information on custodial deaths was to be followed by a post-mortem report, a videography report on the postmortem examination, an inquest report, a magisterial enquiry report, a chemical analysis report, etc. In order to avoid delays in the scrutiny of such cases, the Commission issued additional guidelines in December 2001 asking the States to send the required reports within two months of the incident; it N AT I O N A L H U M A N R I G H T S C O M M I S S I O N