New Delhi: Following The Wire Hindi’s report of a 16-year-old being arrested by the Gautam Buddh Nagar Police despite having no connection with the Noida protests, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken cognisance saying the minor was “arrested and kept illegally at the Kasna jail as an adult in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district for two months”.“NHRC, India takes suo motu cognizance of the reported illegal confinement of a minor boy as an adult inmate at Kasna jail in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh for more than two months before being shifted to a juvenile home,” a statement read.He was arrested following protests by labourers in the district demanding a pay hike and improved working conditions. Nitin’s family and lawyer had said that he was not even present at the protest.In a report by The Wire Hindi’s Shruti Sharma, published on June 16, it was stated that a medical examination confirmed that Nitin* was a minor. The court granted him bail on May 29, more than a month after his arrest on April 14 but his family was still unable to afford the bail sum of Rs 45,000 for his release.In a PIB release, the NHRC has now noted that it took six more days to shift him to a juvenile home in the district after the ossification test confirmed him as a minor. “But he continues to remain in the juvenile home despite having been granted bail by the court, as his poor family could not manage the surety bond,” it stated.The NHRC goes on to say that it has observed that the contents of the report – published by The Wire Hindi – raise “a serious issue of human rights violation of the victim”. It states that it has issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Prisons Administration and Reform Services and the Director General of Police, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.The NHRC has also directed its Director General (Investigation) to depute a team of officers to conduct a spot enquiry and submit a report within a week.“The Commission issues notices to the Director General of Prisons Administration and Reform Services and the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks. The NHRC DG (I) also asked to depute a team of officers to conduct a spot enquiry and submit a report within a week,” it stated.The arrestThe Wire earlier reported that Nitin was employed at a grocery store in Noida. His elder brother, 18-year-old Dinesh, works at a brick kiln in Punjab alongside their mother, whereas the younger brother is only 13-years-old.Dinesh had told The Wire that at the time of the arrest, Nitin was working at the grocery store. According to Nitin’s lawyer, Nitin had received a phone call regarding a parcel for him. Although he stated that he hadn’t placed any order for a parcel, he was asked to step outside and when he reached the designated spot, he found the police there ready to arrest him.An FIR was registered against him under several serious sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Both Nitin’s lawyer and Dinesh had also alleged that he was subjected to assault and made to sign certain documents while in detention. The NHRC has made a note of this.Police responds to NHRC statementAfter the NHRC took cognisance of the matter, Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissionerate issued a statement in which the arrested minor was identified as Nitin “alias Dinesh”. It appears that the police are mixing up Nitin and Dinesh’s identity, referring to them as the same person while attaching Dinesh’s Aadhaar card.According to the police statement, the arrested individual had been employed at a private company in Noida and that the Aadhaar card submitted at the time of his employment recorded his date of birth as January 1, 2007.Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissionerate’s statement.The police further claimed that at the time of his arrest, he stated that he was 19-years-old, while his age was recorded as 18 years in the initial medical examination. However, the minor, through his lawyer, told The Wire Hindi that he had never told the police that he was 19.He also refuted the police’s claim regarding his employment at a factory and noted that he was employed at a general store.The police maintained that, based on the documents and information available at the time, he was treated as an adult. The commissionerate also stated that a legal inquiry into the entire matter has been ordered.‘Attempt to create confusion’The minor’s lawyer, Manik Gupta, has alleged that the police are trying to create confusion between the siblings, Nitin and Dinesh. According to him, Dinesh is not an alias of Nitin – he is his elder brother. He questioned why the police statement was treating the siblings as the same person and argued that the commissionerate should clarify the basis on which it identified the arrested minor as “…alias Dinesh”.He also suspected that the police may now attempt to implicate Dinesh in the case. “It appears that the police are now trying to save their faces after what happened in Nitin’s case. We fear that Dinesh may also be dragged into the matter,” Gupta told The Wire Hindi.*The minor’s name has either been hidden or changed to Nitin to protect his identity.