CHITRANGADA CHOUDHURY - Arrested, tortured, jailed in South Bastar // Malini Subramaniam - Chhattisgarh remains a difficult place for both citizens and journalists
Nag was a rare
Adivasi journalist in the region. Yadav was a very active reporter, and
villagers often approached him for help since he knew Gondi and Hindi. Picked up in July and September end, two Hindi language
journalists from the Darbha block in southern Bastar have been under arrest,
charged with supporting Maoist rebels, and subjected to custodial torture. The
lack of clarity around their alleged offences and the lack of clear evidence,
highlight the perils of being a rural reporter in the militarized and polarized
resource-rich region of South Chhattisgarh where the state and Maoists have
been locked in a decade-long battle.
Santosh Yadav, who used to gather news for multiple Hindi
newspapers including Dainik Navbharat and Dainik
Chhattisgarh, was arrested by the police on 29 September. His
name was subsequently added to a case where 18 villagers are in prison, charged
with an encounter on August 21 during a road-opening
operation by the security forces in which a Special Police Officer was killed. Somaru Nag, an Adivasi journalist who was a
stringer-cum-news agent with theRajasthan Patrika was arrested on
July 16. He has been charged with keeping a look out on the
movements of the police while a group burnt a crusher plant employed in road
construction in Chote Kadma on June 26. Nag’s younger brother, Sonaru, said Nag had been picked
up from their mobile phone shop on the outskirts of Darbha town by policemen in
plainclothes on July 16, and was shown as being
arrested on the July 19 at the Parpa police station.
Sonaru said the family subsequently met Nag in prison.
“We saw that he had been
beaten up very badly. He told us, ‘please speak to the other journalists and
ask them to help me get released.’ When he has committed no crime, how can he admit to the
crime the police are pressurising him to...”, their letter of July 25 said. Sonaru says the family has no clue why the police arrested Nag: “Someone
pointed to him, and that was enough for them to pick him up. They also took
away his bike.”
Yadav had been harassed and tortured by the police for over
a year, before his arrest last week - a fact highlighted by the
August 2015 bulletin of the PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) though
it does not name him. On May 25, 2013, Yadav, a Darbha
resident, was one of the first reporters to reach the section of the valley
where armed Maoist rebels assassinated and injured over 50 people, from
Congress politicians to migrant Adivasi labourers.
According to Kamal Shukla, a journalist based in Kanker
district of North Bastar, Yadav’s speedy presence on the scene following the
killings was reason enough for the police to believe that he was tied to the
Maoists. “Your editor says rush to the spot, and a stringer has to do that.
Just doing our job makes us suspect in the eyes of the police and the Maoists,”
said Shukla.
According to reporters in the region, from June this year,
the police pressure on Yadav grew. Harjit Singh Pappu, the Jagdalpur-based
Bureau Chief of theDainik Chhattisgarh, a paper for which Yadav used to
gather news and take photographs, said “The last time I met Santosh was two to
three months ago. He told me that the police had kept him in custody, stripped
him, and threatened to beat him.”
According to the PUCL bulletin, and a October 4 representation to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the Human
Rights Defender Alert organisation, Yadav was under great pressure from the
police to become an informer.
Bastar’s Superintendent of Police Ajay Yadav denied
allegations of torture and police pressure on Yadav and asserted that the
arrest was a legitimate one: “We had been continuously watching his movements.
He was very active in that area, and had links with the local (Maoist)
commanders. He used to supply material to them.” The SP said he had no
information on Nag’s arrest.
Both reporters have had little support from the publications
that used their work. Sonaru says they met the Patrika editor
in Jagdalpur who told them that, since Nag was already under arrest, there was
nothing he could do. In a front page written piece, Sunil Kumar, the Raipur-based editor of the Dainik
Chhattisgarh, said Yadav used to work for them in the past, and since
the matter was in the court, due process demanded that the police get an
opportunity to prove their allegations, but also demanded that the state
government disclose the basis of Yadav’s arrest. He acknowledged that reporting
in the villages of Bastar was rife with danger: “Police na-khush toh
giraftaari, aur Naxal na-khush toh maut (Upset the police, and face
arrest. Upset the Naxals, and face death.)”
Nag and Yadav are being currently represented by an
all-woman legal aid team called Jag-LAG, which is based in Jagdalpur. Nag has
been charged under the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act; Yadav under the
Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and
the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act (CPSA). Their lawyer, Isha Khandelwal
added, “When the police presented Yadav in court on October 1, they claimed
that he had confessed to being allied to the Maoists. Along with the other
villagers, he has been booked under acts, which make getting bail very
difficult. It is likely to be a long haul.”
Enacted by the Chhattisgarh state government in 2005,
ostensibly to aid the fight against the Maoists, the CPSA designates a range of activities as ‘unlawful’,
including representations by an individual or an organization "...which
interferes or tends to interfere with the maintenance of public order.”
Worryingly for journalists and rights defenders in the state, all offences
registered under this act are non-bailable, and sweeping powers and discretion
are given to the district officials, while framing charges.
“I fear for Yadav’s life. Even if he is released, there is a
great likelihood that he will be targeted by the Maoists,” said Shukla,
recalling prior assassinations by Maoists of two journalists in the region - Sai Reddy (also booked by the police in 2008 under the
CPSA), and Nemichand Jain. The Maoists justified both killings saying the
journalists were police informers, though they subsequently apologised for Jain’s death, in the face of a media boycott.
In
prior communications to journalists, the rebels have argued that the concept of
neutrality does not hold in a class war. Such extreme views mirror that of the state security forces.
Pappu said, “You have to go to villages, go to the jungles, meet people. You
have to report the other side also. But the police thinks that if you are
meeting them (the Maoists), you must be a part of them.”
Simultaneously, the
police do not hesitate to deploy local journalists to reach out to Maoists when
they feel the need, such as to carry out negotiations for the release of
kidnapped officials. In this dangerous reporting landscape, rural stringers are
especially vulnerable by virtue of having little social capital, and living and
working on the frontlines. Sudha Bharadwaj, a Bilaspur-based human rights
lawyer and PUCL member pointed out, “They don’t get the immunity, protection or
working conditions that journalists in the national media get (even though no
outside journalist can really report in these areas without a local
journalist’s assistance for travel, and interpretation of the local Adivasi
language).”
Nag was a rare Adivasi journalist in the region. Yadav was a
very active reporter, and villagers often approached him for help since he knew
Gondi and Hindi, according to Khandelwal. “Many villagers came to us for legal
aid, via him,” she said. Nag and Yadav’s are among a string of arrests of
villagers made in the Darbha area by the police in past weeks, she added.
Bastar’s journalists are planning a meeting on October 10 in
the state capital of Raipur. Shukla and Pappu said the aim of the meeting was
to demand recognition by media organisations and state and security officials
of journalists working in the conflict zone, to devise a strategy for greater
safety and protection against arbitrary police action, and to protest the
incarceration of their colleagues. “Over the years, the situation in Bastar has become such
that if you want to be a journalist”, said Shukla, “the expectation is that you
be dishonest with yourself, close your eyes, and pretend that you can’t see
anything.”
A murmur of amusement rippled through the corridor in
Jagdalpur court on October 1, as Joga*, a panchayat member of Bhadrimahu
village, read out the headlines in the previous day's newspapers to a group of
his neighbours. "About 150 villagers from Bhadrimahu village of Darbha
block descended 14 kilometres by foot to reach Darbha thana seeking security
against the Maoists," one of the newspapers reported.
The report went on
to quote SRP Kalluri, the Inspector General of police, Bastar, as saying: "The
population of Bastar is now wake. They are fed up with the Maoists, which is
why the villagers reached Darbha thana." The Superintendent of Police,
Ajay Yadav, was quoted to say : "The villagers want peace now... It was
only after much persuasion and sufficient assurance of protection that the
villagers left for their homes."
Listening to the reports, the villagers could not suppress
their laughter, despite the grim circumstances that had brought them to the
region's administrative centre. The policemen were lying, they said. They had
trekked from their village on September 29 to secure the release of five
village boys arrested by the police. A local journalist, Santosh Yadav, had
noted their testimonies. Hours later, he too was arrested by the police. Now, the
villagers had gathered in his support outside the courtroom where he was being
presented by the police.
The case of the five missing boys: It all began on
August 26, when five young men from Bhadrimahu village – Boti Sodi, Kuma
Kawasi, Somdu Hunga, Deva Hura and Budra Muka – were picked up by the
police from the weekly bazaar at Darbha, about 14 kilometres away.
When the boys did not return from the market, gathering news
that they had been picked up by the police, the family members of the boys trekked
to the Darbha police station to enquire about them, said Joga. All they got was
a denial: the police said they did not have the boys.
Later, however, the villagers discovered the boys had been sent to prison on charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder. The police claimed they had helped the rebels in laying an ambush on security personnel on August 21. An assistant platoon commander of the Special Task Force of Chhattisgarh police was killed in the ambush and a constable was injured.
Later, however, the villagers discovered the boys had been sent to prison on charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder. The police claimed they had helped the rebels in laying an ambush on security personnel on August 21. An assistant platoon commander of the Special Task Force of Chhattisgarh police was killed in the ambush and a constable was injured.
A week after the boys were picked up, the police official
heading the Darbha thana sent word to the families that they could collect
them, on the condition that one member from each of the families came down
personally to the thana. A meeting was held in the village. It was decided that a
group of villagers would accompany the family members to Darbha on Tuesday,
September 29, as requested by the police. With the weekly bazaar falling on
Wednesday, the villagers felt they could combine the visit to the thana with
their weekly purchases.
On Tuesday, the villagers reached Darbha around noon. A
couple of them went to the thana while the rest gathered on the ground near the
school. At the police station, the
villagers were asked to wait. They were told that the boys would be released
once the "bigger officers" arrived. As they waited, they were served
lunch. They politely declined the food but the policemen insisted they eat. The
villagers meekly ate the dal, vegetables and rice offered on plates
made of leaves.
After a long wait, the Superintendent of Police of Bastar
arrived. There was a brief hunt for a translator for the speech that was about
to commence. "We are now friends," Ajay Yadav, Bastar SP, reportedly
said. He assured the villagers that henceforth the police would neither chase
them nor fire at them, and the villagers need not run when they saw security
personnel approaching them. In token of the new friendship, the police
gave a sari each to the women and a checked lungi and umbrella to the men.
The Inspector General of police in Bastar, SRP Kalluri, also
addressed the villagers. They were then invited to talk about their problems.
None got up to speak. "We didn't know what to say," said a young boy
from Bhadrimahu, recalling the events. A panchayat member added: "We came
as it was promised that the arrested boys would be released!"
As the evening set in, the villagers left the police
station, clutching their saris, lungis and umbrellas. The police told them the
boys would be released after a couple of days. Ajay Yadav, the superintendent
of police of Bastar district, however, denied this version of events. He
insisted that the villagers had not been summoned by the police – they
came of their own volition, seeking police intervention against Maoist
harassment. "We have been interacting with the villagers for long over
matters that cannot be disclosed to media," he told Scroll.
The arrest of Santosh Yadav: Twenty-five-year old
Santosh Yadav, a local journalist, was among those who covered the event at the
Darbha thana. Hours later, the police showed up at his residence. "The
police came looking for him around six in the evening," said his wife,
Poonam Yadav. She informed them that he was not home. Yadav did not come back
home that evening. His family gathered that the police had picked him up from
outside a shop.
The police has arrested Yadav on charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, association with terrorist organisation and supporting and aiding terrorist groups under the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act. The superintendent of police denied that Yadav's arrest had anything to do with the Bhadrimahu event. "He was under watch for a long time," said Ajay Yadav, Bastar SP. "His arrest is the consequence of the close links he had with the Naxalites."
Yadav contributed reports and pictures to several Hindi newspapers. As a stringer in Darbha, he was widely sought after for news from the region which had seen a Maoist ambush in May 2013 that left 28 people dead, including senior Congress leaders. Many more ambushes and attacks followed, despite the presence of security camps in the area.
Although Yadav's reports were much in demand, working in the area came at considerable risks. The Maoist conflict has left the region's journalists vulnerable as both the police and the Maoists suspect them of working as informers for the other side.
Last year, Yadav told this writer about the ordeal he faced in August, when he was called over from his home in the middle of the night by policemen. He was taken to the forest guest house opposite the police chowki in Darbha. He was asked to strip and made to sit for five or six hours inside the cell before he was released.
Hurt and embarrassed, Yadav informed the Jagdalpur office of Navbharat Times where he worked as a stringer. Confirming this, Manish Gupta, the newspaper's bureau chief in Jagdalpur, said: "Had this harassment persisted we would have looked into the matter, but Santosh did not revert with any further complaints."
Sympathetic to people: As a young man who had grown up in Darbha, Yadav found the rate at which the police made arrests and detentions in the area disturbing. Several of his adivasi schoolmates had been detained by the police. Earlier this year, he reached out to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a collective of mostly women lawyers who fight cases pro-bono, to represent the case of an adivasi boy, Arjun Ram of Chandameta village. Ram had been picked up by the police while he was returning from selling his cattle in the local market on May 16.
The police has arrested Yadav on charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, association with terrorist organisation and supporting and aiding terrorist groups under the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act. The superintendent of police denied that Yadav's arrest had anything to do with the Bhadrimahu event. "He was under watch for a long time," said Ajay Yadav, Bastar SP. "His arrest is the consequence of the close links he had with the Naxalites."
Yadav contributed reports and pictures to several Hindi newspapers. As a stringer in Darbha, he was widely sought after for news from the region which had seen a Maoist ambush in May 2013 that left 28 people dead, including senior Congress leaders. Many more ambushes and attacks followed, despite the presence of security camps in the area.
Although Yadav's reports were much in demand, working in the area came at considerable risks. The Maoist conflict has left the region's journalists vulnerable as both the police and the Maoists suspect them of working as informers for the other side.
Last year, Yadav told this writer about the ordeal he faced in August, when he was called over from his home in the middle of the night by policemen. He was taken to the forest guest house opposite the police chowki in Darbha. He was asked to strip and made to sit for five or six hours inside the cell before he was released.
Hurt and embarrassed, Yadav informed the Jagdalpur office of Navbharat Times where he worked as a stringer. Confirming this, Manish Gupta, the newspaper's bureau chief in Jagdalpur, said: "Had this harassment persisted we would have looked into the matter, but Santosh did not revert with any further complaints."
Sympathetic to people: As a young man who had grown up in Darbha, Yadav found the rate at which the police made arrests and detentions in the area disturbing. Several of his adivasi schoolmates had been detained by the police. Earlier this year, he reached out to the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a collective of mostly women lawyers who fight cases pro-bono, to represent the case of an adivasi boy, Arjun Ram of Chandameta village. Ram had been picked up by the police while he was returning from selling his cattle in the local market on May 16.
The Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group immediately swung into action
to challenge Ram's detention. Yadav went to the extent of getting the principal
of the school to testify before the juvenile court to prove Ram's innocence.
"He (Yadav) was genuinely affected by things happening around him and
wanted to help as much as he could," said Shalini Gera from the Jagdalpur
Legal Aid Group.
Yadav regularly approached Gera and her colleagues for free
legal aid for villagers. He intervened in the case of Somaruram Nag, another
journalist who was threatened and harassed by the police in July. More
recently, Yadav introduced the villagers from Bhadrimahu to the Jagdalpur Legal
Aid Group. Gupta of Navbharat Times believes Yadav was
picked up by the police because he crossed his professional line as a
journalist by standing with the people who protested against police atrocities.
In a place like Darbha, anyone who helps villagers, who are themselves under
watch for being Maoist supporters, runs the risk of coming under police
surveillance and being labelled a Maoist supporter, he said.
"The police is trying to send a message through
Santosh’s case to journalists that they should remain within their
limits," said Gupta. "The police is conveniently forgetting the many
times when it relies on these very local stringers to negotiate with the
Maoists to retrieve the dead or injured bodies of security personnel lying in
the forests," he added, recalling the Pilmed encounter in Sukma district
in April this year and the Puverti encounter at the Andhra border in April 2013
when local journalists had stepped in to help the police secure their
colleagues’ bodies.
On October 1, Yadav was produced before the court in
Jagdalpur. Not only were villagers of Bhadrimahu and Darbha present during the
court hearing, so were his family members, including his father, who is
employed with the Women and Child Development Department. His wife sat with
their two-month-old baby, having left the older children aged 5 and 3 at home.
The police argued for an extension of Yadav's custody, claiming it needed to
question him further. The court granted the extension. A public meeting of all working journalists has been called in Raipur on Friday
to protest against the police harassment of journalists and stringers in
Bastar.
*Name changed to protect identity
*Name changed to protect identity
also see
