INDIA: Deliberate police inaction into alleged dowry death despite the court order due to nexus between the police and the alleged perpetrator

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner MASUM in West Bengal regarding an alleged dowry death of a woman in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India on 3 July 2006. Despite the victim’s mother’s repeated complaints as well as a court order to investigate the case, the police have neither taken any serious action to investigate or arrest the alleged perpetrator. It is alleged that the reason for the apparent deliberate police inaction is that the alleged perpetrator and his family are cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the ruling party of West Bengal state.

CASE DETAILS:

A Hindu young man Mr. Amaresh Mondal developed a relationship with Ms. Rehena Khatun. He subsequently converted to Islam and changed his name to Imran Sardar and married Rehena on 26 March 1996. The marriage was registered and solemnized according to Muslim law. At the time of marriage, Rehena’s relatives gifted several household articles, ornaments and cash as dowry.

Amaresh Mondal’s (alias Imran Sardar) father was against the marriage so afterwards the couple lived with Rehena’s mother in her house located at the no. 3 Sonakhali village under Basanti police station in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India. Amaresh’s family is involved with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the ruling party of West Bengal state and Amaresh is a local cadre of the CPIM.  He and his wife had two children; 7-year old son Rafique Sardar and 5-year old daughter Ijash Khatun.

Amaresh later got a job as an accountant in a wholesale fish market and moved to no. 6 Sonakhali village, under Police Station Basanti in South 24 Parganas district. Rehena’s mother regularly visited her daughter’s house to look after her grandchildren. However, after a few years of marriage, Amaresh started creating pressure on Rehena to bring in more money from her mother and when she could not do this he allegedly started beating Rehena at regular intervals which became worse day by day. He also allegedly developed an illicit relationship with another woman of that village.

At around 2:30pm on 3 July 2006, according to some eye witnesses living in neighborhood, Amaresh tied both hands of Rehena with a rope and covered her face with a cloth to silence her and then set on fire after pouring kerosene on her body. Her two children also saw that their father was pulling their mother inside the room instead of saving her.

Upon hearing of the incident from Rehena’s neighbors, her mother rushed to her daughter’s house and found that Rehena’s maternal uncles had taken her to Canning Hospital. When she went to the hospital, she saw that Rehena’s whole body, except for her mouth had suffered serious burns.  Mercifully, and she was senseless.

Meanwhile, while Rehena was in hospital, Amaresh took cash money, valuable bank papers, insurance papers and Rehena’s gold ornaments from home and went to his father’s house along with his son, leaving his 5-year-old daughter alone at home. Now the daughter is with her grandmother.

At around 7:10pm on 6 July 2006, Rehena succumbed to her injuries. Astonishingly, before her death, no police officer came to record Rehena’s statement. After Rehena’s death, her mother Alekjan Bewa went to the Basanti police station to lodge a complaint against Amaresh. However, local cadres of the ruling party allegedly forced the mother to make a statement that her daughter died due to a stove blast. The police officer also refused to register her complaint and forced her to sign in some blank papers and further asked her to solve the matter amicably after Rehena’s burial was completed.

On July 7, the victim’s mother again went to the same police station and lodged a written complaint against Amaresh. However, the police did not take any action to investigate the case and arrest Amaresh. Despite her repeated inquiries about the progress of the investigation, the police have done nothing, allegedly due to the political influence of Amaresh’s father.

Meanwhile, Amaresh and other cadres of CPIM have been allegedly threatening the victim’s mother to cover up the incident. Fearing for her life, she fled from her home and has gone into hiding. 
 
On July 17, Alekjan Bewa again made a written complaint with Basanti police station. But after observing no progress in her complaint, on October 27, she lodged a written petition to Superintendent of Police of 24 Parganas (South) district. However, there has been no response that officer.

On November 2, the victim’s mother filed a case with the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court of Alipore, Kolkata (Case no.: 6904/06 dated 02.11.2006 under Section 498A/302/201of Indian Penal Code). Section 498A is about the Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty, Section 302 is about Punishment for murder and Section 201 is about Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen an offender.

The court then ordered to Basanti police station to treat this complaint as a First Information Report (FIR) and investigate the matter based on Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code of India. Despite the court order, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Basanti police station have not yet investigated this case. As a result, the alleged perpetrator is still at large and openly threatening the mother to withdraw the case.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

As seen in this case, the nexus between local politicians or influential figures and the police is the main obstruction in establishing the rule of law in the state.

In India, the domestic law provides only two options for an aggrieved person to initiate a criminal investigation. One is by lodging a complaint with the police and the other is by approaching the court with a petition. In either case the investigation is conducted by the local police or any other branch of the law-enforcement agencies in India. Dowry deaths are supposed to be handled by the police. But the policing in the state of West Bengal has been a tool to execute the wishes of the ruling party rather than to implement the rule of law in the state.

Besides, it is widely known that cruelty meted out against women regarding dowries is a curse on Indian society. The government of India, in an attempt to prevent the practice of demanding, paying and accepting dowry during and after marriages has enacted a law criminalising the practice. This is through the enactment of the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961. However, the implementation of the Act is so despicably poor that the practice continues openly even today. In consonance with the Act, there were a few changes made to the Indian Penal Code, 1860. New offences like 498A and 304B were incorporated into the Code. However all these provisions make sense only if the local police function with a clear intention to prevent crime. In India the state of policing has fallen to such a condemnable state that for ordinary persons to get justice through the police is practically impossible. Corruption and ineptitude in policing has gone up to such an extent that the ordinary people consider the local police as criminals in uniform.

To see our previous appeals on the cases of the dowry death, please go to: UA-357-2006, UA-095-2006, UA-91-2005 and UG-016-2006.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and urge them to order an immediate and thorough investigation into this case according to the court order and punish the alleged perpetrator by law without further delay. Please also urge them to inquire about the deliberate inaction of the Basanti police into this case and take action against responsible officers. Please also urge them to provide effective protection to the victim’s mother (the complainant).

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER