NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS Protests Unlawful Arrest of 7 members of a Fact Finding Team
29th December,
2016
To, The
Chairperson,
National Human
Rights Commission,
Manav Adhikar
Bhavan, Block-C,
GPO Complex, INA,
New Delhi.
Sub: Unlawful Arrest of 7 members of a Fact Finding
Team of Lawyers, Journalist, Human Rights Activists, Students of Telangana on
25th Dec, 2016 and Continuing Repression of Adivasis,
Activists, Lawyers, Human rights workers in Chhattisgarh.
Hon’ble Sir,
This Hon’ble
Commission and the entire country is well-aware of the serious constitutional,
legal and human rights violations that have sadly become a part of the everyday
reality of the adivasis and human rights activists in the villages and forests
of South Chhattisgarh. In the name of ‘combing’ and combating ‘Maosim’, the
State, through its military, para-military, security and police forces has
unleashed an unprecedented spree of threats, violence, false cases, arbitrary
arrests, detentions, dubious encounters, rapes, sexual assault etc. on the
impoverished adivasis and anyone who stands up for their rights.
A very large
number of fact finding reports and the National ST Commission Report have
brought forth these realities very vividly. A testimony to this well-documented
state of affairs is the recent Order of this Hon’ble Commission dt. 17/12/2006
summoning the Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh and Mr. SRP Kalluri, IGP, Bastar
Range, who is widely believed to be responsible for a lot of extra-constitutional
actions and has also been indicted by the CBI in the Tadmetla incident.
In fact, in the said
Order, this Commission categorically stated that the series of repressive
measures including the most recent incidents of un-substantiated FIR against
Prof. Nandini Sundar, burning of effigies of activists and journalists was
clearly police vendetta against the lawyers, journalists and human rights
defenders who have been investigating and reporting on the numerous human
rights violations. The said Order is a matter of record and needs no
reiteration. [Annex-I]
However, citing ‘health reasons’,
barely a few days before he was to appear before this Commission, the said IGP
stayed away from the hearing and is now ‘back to work’, with what seems yet
another attempt to officially tarnish democratic processes and harass human
right activists.
It is in the above
context that we would like to draw your immediate attention to the recent
arbitrary arrests of a fact-finding team of 7 members from Telangana Democratic
Front (TDF) comprising High Court lawyers, human rights activists, students and
a journalist by the Telangana and Chhattisgarh Police, violating due process of
law.
In its press
release dt. 26/12/2016, the district police of Sukma, Chhattisgarh has gone so
far as to brand all these 7 persons as ‘naxalites’, without even caring to
refer to any evidence, to level such an allegation. [Annexure-II].
The seven members of
the team who have been arrested are:
1. Balla
Ravindranath, Advocate,
High Court, AP and Telangana and General Secretary of the Committee for
Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP),
2.Chikkudu
Prabhaker, Advocate, High
Court, AP and Telangana and Convenor, Telanagna Democratic Forum.
3. Durga Prasad, Independent Journalist, Hyderabad
4. Duddu Prabhakar, President, AP Kula Nirmulana Porata Samiti (Committee
for Caste Annihilation)
5. Rajendra Prasad, Telangana
Vidhyarthi Vedika (Telangana Students Forum)
6. Nazeer, Telangana Vidhyarthi Vedika (Telangana
Students Forum)
7. Ramanala
Laxmaiyya, Secretary,
Adivasi Tudem Dubba, Khammam.
We would like this
Hon’ble Commission to kindly note that, reportedly, all the 7 members were
picked up in the day on 25th December, 2016 at Dummagudam village,
Bhadrachalam District, Telangana, when they were planning to visit Chhattisgarh
to enquire into complaints of human rights violations suffered by adivasis
villagers at the hands of security forces. Later in the evening, the Telangana
police handed them over to the Chhattisgarh police, where reportedly they have
been charged of various offences including possessing ‘banned’ literature and
banned currency notes, providing ‘assistance’ to Naxals, ‘instigating’
adivasis against the state/police etc. An FIR was registered under the Chhattisgarh
Public Security Act (CSPA), 2005 by the Sukma police.
On 26/12/2016, all the
7 accused persons were produced before the remanding Court in Sukma and
remanded to judicial custody under sections 8(1), (2) and (3) of the CSPA. It
has come to our notice that while the arrest was actually made by the Telangana
police within the territory of Telangana, the Chhattisgarh police misinformed
the magistrate that the 7 persons were arrested in Chhattisgarh and have stated
so in their official press release referred to above. The said act of
misleading the Court, is an offence in itself and a blatant abuse of law since
all the 7 persons who were arrested by the Telangana police within the
territory of Telangana had to be produced before an appropriate Telanagana Court
having jurisdiction and not before the Chhattisgarh Court. This apart, there
appears to be no prima facie reason for the arrest itself,
even within Telanagana.
This entire episode is
undeniably yet another act of state vendetta and a glaring example of gross
abuse of public office, criminal defamation and violation of the civil
liberties and human rights of these independent investigators. The arrest, we
submit, is totally unlawful, unwarranted and violative of the numerous orders
issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the past and ‘arrest’ regulations by
this Commission too. The members of the fact-finding team are respectable,
law-abiding citizens including lawyers of the High Court, journalists and human
rights activists. There was no need for the arbitrary arrest or even denial of
bail the ‘judicial custody’, since there is no reason to believe that they
would evade judicial process or subvert the trial /prosecution.
As has been stated by
various civil rights groups, this is clearly a case of both Telangana and
Chhattisgarh police overstepping their mandate and “violating the
law and the fundamental rights to free movement, freedom of speech and
expression and the fundamental duty to protect the fundamental rights of
adivasis and other local people in Bastar area who are victims of a severely
repressive state police”. It is in fact the duty of law enforcement
agencies to ensure the security of human rights defenders who are assisting the
State in ensuring rule of law. But what we are witnessing in these parts of
Bastar is a complete breakdown of rule of law and sustained persecution of anyone
and everyone who questions human rights violations.
We would, at this
point, like this Hon’ble Commission to note there is a clear history of
impunity enjoyed by the police in this region and the overt and covert support
that the state apparatus gives, at the highest levels, has led to the situation
we are in today, where police think they are ‘above the law’ and ‘accountable
to none’. While the general situation inside Bastar is now widely known, there
are a very large number of specific instances of extra-judicial killings,
disappearances, police violence, sexual assault cases etc. that have still not
come to the lime light and even FIRs are not being registered. It is these
specific instances that the State is keen to suppress under the unacceptable alibi
that it would “weaken the morale of the forces”! The alleged torture and
encounter of a minor, Somaru Pottam from Metapal village in mid-December by the
security forces, in which the Bilaspur High Court has ordered a repeat autopsy
two days back is only one of many such likely incidents.
There is also a
continuous threat climate that is being created i.e. no academics, lawyers,
journalists, activists or the adivasis should dare question anything that the
police do in the name of fighting the Maoists. Very recently rights advocates,
activists associated with PUCL and JAGLAG were intimidated for calling a
meeting of the adivasis in Matenar village of Dantewada and hearing their
grievances (despite due police permissions in advance). Yesterday, Adv. Shanili
Gera and other legal activists were harassed by the SP Bastar, Mr. RN Dash at
Jagdalpur, despite the fact that were there as per Orders of the High Court and
arrangement of the Police Commissioner, Bastar, for exhumation of the body of
Somaru Pottam, alleged to be encountered. Detailed complaints in this regard
have already been sent to the Commission. All these instances of human rights
defenders is totally unconstitutional and require immediate attention.
In the light of the
above, we urge this Hon’ble Commission to immediately take cognizance of this
matter too, as it is integrally connected to various other human rights
violations in Chhattisgarh which this Commission has been looking into and direct
the Govts. of Telangana and Chhattisgarh to:
1. Drop all charges against all the seven members of the Fact Finding
Team of TDF and ensure their right to freely move in the areas of Bastar for
conducting a fact-finding.
2. Initiate criminal prosecution against the concerned police officers
for abuse of due process law, reportedly misleading the Sukma Court and
arbitrarily arresting the fact-finding team members.
We also urge this Hon’ble Commission to immediately:
1.Summon Mr. SRP Kalluri, IGP, Bastar Division and Mr. RN Dash, SP,
Bastar before the Commission in person to offer a detailed explanation of all
charges of human rights violations against them and thereupon initiate
appropriate action, as per law.
2. Send a high-level team comprising some members of this Commission and
some independent activists, lawyers, academics and journalists to visit various
areas in the Bastar region and obtain first hand information of the serious
issues of gross human rights abuses, to enable quick and appropriate action as
per law.
3. Direct filing of FIRs in all cases of cognizable offences and human
rights violations as directed by a 5-judge Constitution Bench of the
Hon’ble Supreme Court, headed by the CJI in Lalita Kumari vs. Govt. of U.P.
& Ors [(2014) 2 SCC 1] (wherein it was held that registration of FIR is
mandatory u/Sec 154 of IPC if information discloses commission of a cognizable
offence).
We look forward to immediate action by this Hon’ble Commission in this
regard in the interests of rule of law, justice and fairness…
Thanking You,
Yours sincerely,
Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
Aruna
Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh – Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and National Campaign for
People’s Right to Information and NAPM
Prafulla Samantara, - Lok Shakti Abhiyan & NAPM,
Odisha;
Lingraj
Azad –
Samajwadi Jan Parishad - Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, NAPM, Odisha;
Binayak Sen and
Kavita Srivastava, People’s
Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party and NAPM, Uttar Pradesh
Sudhir Vombatkere, Senior Activist, NAPM, Karnataka
Gabriele
Dietrich, Penn Urimay
Iyakkam, Madurai and NAPM, TN;
Geetha
Ramakrishnan, Unorganised
Sector Workers Federation, NAPM, TN;
Arul Doss, NAPM Tamil Nadu
Arundhati
Dhuru, Nandlal Master, Manesh Gupta - NAPM, UP;
Richa
Singh, Sangatin
Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, NAPM-UP
Vilayodi Venugopal,
CR Neelakandan and Prof. Kusumam NAPM, Kerala
Vimal
Bhai - Matu
Jan Sangathan, NAPM-Uttarakhand & Jabar Singh, NAPM,
Uttarakhand;
Sister
Celia -
Domestic Workers Union & NAPM, Karnataka;
Rukmini
V P, Garment Labour
Union, NAPM, Karnataka;
Anand
Mazgaonkar, Krishnakant - Paryavaran Suraksh Samiti, NAPM Gujarat;
Kamayani
Swami, Ashish Ranjan – Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan & NAPM Bihar;
Mahendra
Yadav – Kosi
Navnirman Manch, NAPM Bihar;
Sister Dorothy, NAPM Bihar
Dayamani Barla, Aadivasi-Moolnivasi Astivtva Raksha
Samiti, NAPM Jharkhand
Dr. Sunilam and Adv. Aradhna Bhargava - Kisan Sangharsh Samiti NAPM Madhya Pradesh
Bhupender
Singh Rawat –
Jan Sangharsh Vahini, NAPM, Delhi
Rajendra
Ravi, Nanu Prasad, Madhuresh Kumar, Amit Kumar, Himnshi Singh, Uma Kapari,
Zaved Mazumder, NAPM,
Delhi
Faisal
Khan, Khudai
Khidmatgar, NAPM Haryana
J S
Walia, NAPM Haryana;
Kailash Meena, NAPM Rajasthan;
Amitava
Mitra & Avik
Saha, NAPM West Bengal;
P. Chennaiah, Andhra Prdaesh Vyavasaya Vruttidarulua Union
(APVVU) and NAPM-AP
Ramakrishnam Raju,
United Forum for RTI and NAPM, AP
Suniti
SR, Suhas Kolhekar, Prasad Bagwe - NAPM, Maharashtra;
Gautam
Bandopadhyay, NAPM,
Chhatisgarh
Anjali Bharadwaj, National Campaign for People’s Right
to Information and NAPM
Kaladas Dahariya, RELAA, Chhatisgarh
Bilal
Khan, Ghar
Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, Mumbai,
Meera
Sanghamitra, NAPM Telangana-AP,
Jeevan Kumar And
Syed Bilal, Human Rights
Forum, Telangana-AP
Vyjayanthi Mogli
and Rachana Mudraboyina,
Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti Sex, (THITS), Telangana,
P. Shankar, Dalit Bahujana Front, Telanagna
Adv. MA Shakeel, Centre for Study of Constitution and
Society, Hyderabad Telangana.
S.Q. Masood, Centre for Peace Studies, Hyderabad
Telangana.
Malini Subramaniam, Independent Journalist, Hyderabad.
Vissa Kiran Kumar, Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Telangana-AP
Vimala Morthala, Independent Writer, Activist, Hyderaba
Thomas Pallithanam - People's Action For Rural Awakening,
Ravulapalem, East Godavari, AP
And many other
people’s organizations, allies of NAPM and NAPM-Telangana and AP.
____
S.Q. Masood
#: 19-2-21/23/39,
Basharath Nagar,
Basharath Nagar,
