Panaji, April 12 (IANS): The Goa Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued notice to top state officials over the death of a lawyer-social activist who suffered a cardiac arrest in court last week and died en route to a hospital.

On a petition of Aires Rodrigues that poor health emergency facilities could have led to lawyer Satish Sonak's death, the state Human Rights Commission members A.D. Salkar and J.A. Keny have asked the state Chief Secretary, the Director General of Police and the heads of health administrations to respond to its notice within four weeks.

"When Sonak suffered a heart attack in the court premises at Patto Plaza in Panaji, the 108 emergency ambulance took 45 minutes to reach. The emergency ambulance was also not equipped with the much-required life-saving devices, which possibly could have helped revive and save Sonak's life," Rodrigues said in his petition.

Rodrigues sought the intervention of the commission to ensure that negligence in providing basic human rights does not result in loss of innocent lives and greater tragedies for individuals, families and the society at large.