The rights body also recommended departmental proceedings against two police officers.
Chairman of WBHRC Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly and two other members recommended that "the state government must compensate both Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta, the two arrestees, for the manner in which they were arrested from their residential complex and detained in the thana in a case which is about non-cognizable offence."
Mohapatra, a Jadavpur University chemistry professor, and his neighbour Sengupta were accused last April of forwarding the cartoon parodying Satyajit Ray's ever green children's film "Sonar Kella" through an e-mail which the police claimed amounted to character assassination of the chief minister.
"Their compensation is assessed at Rs 50,000 to be paid to each of them by the state government within a period of six weeks from date," the order signed by Justice Ganguly and members Justice (retd) N C Sil and S N Roy said.
It also recommended that the state government initiate departmental proceedings against Milan Kumar Das, Additional officer in-charge of Purba Jadavpur Police Station and against Sanjoy Biswas, sub-inspector of police within six weeks.
The commission, however, made it very clear that nothing said in this order would affect police investigation into the connected cases.
The commission had taken suo motu cognisance of the manner in which professor Mahapatra and Sengupta, aged over 70 years, were arrested on the night of April 12 from their housing society. MORE