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INDIA: West Bengal police beat man to death then threaten local population

September 20, 2005

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

20 September 2005
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UA-163-2005: INDIA: West Bengal police beat man to death then threaten local population

INDIA: Assault & extrajudicial killing; intimidation & death threats; police inaction; disrespect for deceased
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has very disturbing news from local partner organization Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) that the police in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal, beat a man to death during routine inquiries on 18 September 2005. According to the reports, since the man was killed, the police and local authorities have acted to cover up the murder and obstruct any proper inquiry from taking place. They also treated the body of the deceased with contempt, and left it for hours outside the police station like a bag of rubbish.

This is the latest in a series of worsening attacks against people in Jalangi in the lead up to a public tribunal on starvation in the area that is being convened by MASUM in cooperation with the AHRC on September 23 and 24. Only a few days ago the AHRC reported on the latest attack on local human rights defender Gopen Sharma (UA-161-2005). It has also recently noted that starvation deaths are continuing unabated in the locality despite government commitments to include affected persons on welfare schemes (HU-07-2005).

We ask you to write to the relevant government authorities expressing outrage at the latest attack that has caused this needless death, and also at the general atmosphere of terror that is being incited among the local population by the police and other authorities.

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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DETAILED INFORMATION:

Name of the victim: Chheparuddin Mondal, 35-years-old, son of Sattar Mondal
Address: Farazipara village, Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal
Date of incident: 18 September 2005 at about 8:45pm
Place of incident: Victim's house
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Subir Pal, Officer-in-charge, Jalangi police station
2. Bidhan Bitan, Circle Inspector, Domkal
3. Snehashish Dirghangi, Sub Divisional Police Officer, Domkal
4. Murshidabad District police contingent

On 18 September 2005 a Murshidabad District police contingent came to the house of 35-year-old Chheparuddin Mondal in Farazipara village, Jalangi, in connection with the arrest of his cousin. That man, Lavlo Mondal, son of Absad Mondal, is a resident of Bangladesh who was arrested by Border Security Force personnel after entering India illegally. He was handed to the Jalangi police, and under interrogation told the police that he was on his way to Farazipara when arrested. After that the police, led by the Officer in Charge of Jalangi police station, the Circle Inspector Bitan Pradhan and Sub Divisional Police Officer Snehashish Dirghangi went to the village

At the house of Chheparuddin Mondal the police began asking questions about which he knew nothing, was unable to reply, and resented the inquiries. The police then allegedly began assaulting the man with sticks, punches, kicks and using the butts of their rifles. Mondal fell to the ground unconscious and lay there in a pool of blood. The assault was witnessed by other persons, including the wife (Ferdousa) and children (Kajal and Rupa) of the victim together with other villagers. A short while later the police left.

The villagers found that they could not rouse the victim and went to complain that he had been killed at Jalangi police station the same night. However, the police allegedly refused to lodge the case and threatened the wife of Chheparuddin and accompanying villagers that the same thing would happen to them if they dared to lodge a complaint.

With intervention from local rights group MASUM the matter obtained outside attention and the following morning, September 19, the police took a written complaint from the wife of the deceased, but without completing the formalities of putting a seal and signature. After that some officers went to the site of the death, but instead of conducting a proper investigation they allegedly threatened the family to bury the body and not take the matter to higher authorities or they would also learn fatal lessons.

Finally, the police took the body from the village around 10-11am, as there was no doctor in the village with competent authority to issue a death certificate. However, latest reports indicate that they did not treat the body properly. Instead, it was left outside the Jalangi police station in a cycle-van-rickshaw, covered in plastic. No doctor was called to check whether the body was dead or alive; however, in the afternoon it was taken away and then returned to the family in the evening. Whatever was done to the body in that period, MASUM has indicated that it is quite impossible that a proper postmortem can have been conducted because the nearest hospital with necessary facilities is a two-hour drive away.

Latest indications are also that the local authorities are acting fast to cover up the matter by paying off the family. As one in the family is a member of the village council for the ruling party in the state, at around 2:30pm on September 19 the local Member of the Legislative Assembly Yunus Sarkar came to negotiate with the Jalangi police and reach a settlement whereby they pay some money to the family to silence the matter.
  
Meanwhile, no magistrate was deployed to enquire into the matter and make an inquest report as is required under section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code where a death occurs in custody.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The AHRC has in recent months written extensively on the efforts of MASUM and other human rights defenders in Murshidabad who are working to raise awareness about the conditions of starvation and utter degradation experienced by villagers there. Not only has the authorities' response been characterized by inaction, but increasingly the police are operating a reign of terror over the district in attempts to quell public disquiet and demonstrate that they will without compromise resort to violence and killing. While the latest death was not directly linked to the attacks on human rights defenders like Gopen Sharma (UA-161-2005) and the ongoing starvation in the region (HU-07-2005), it is undeniably part of this overall trend.

It is particularly disturbing for both MASUM and the AHRC that this killing comes just a few days before a jointly-organized people's tribunal on starvation and government inaction in the district, which is due to be held this September 23 and 24, about which the local authorities have been fully informed. The worsening attacks appear to be aimed at intimidating the local populace against speaking out during the course of the tribunal's hearings in the vicinity.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister and Minister in Charge of Home (Police) Department, Government of West Bengal seeking his urgent intervention into this case, and seeking assurances that no further attacks of this nature will take place in Jalangi. Please send copies of that letter to the appropriate authorities provided below.


Suggested letter:

Dear Mr. Bhattacharjee

INDIA: West Bengal police beat man to death then threaten local population

Name of the victim: Chheparuddin Mondal, 35-years-old, son of Sattar Mondal
Address: Farazipara village, Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal
Date of incident: 18 September 2005 at about 8:45pm
Place of incident: Victim's house
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Subir Pal, Officer-in-charge, Jalangi police station
2. Bidhan Bitan, Circle Inspector, Domkal
3. Snehashish Dirghangi, Sub Divisional Police Officer, Domkal
4. Murshidabad District police contingent

I am writing to express my outrage at the disturbing news that the police in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal, beat a man to death during routine inquiries on 18 September 2005. According to the information I received, since the man was killed, the police and local authorities have acted to cover up the murder and obstruct any proper inquiry from taking place. They also treated the body of the deceased with contempt, and left it for hours outside the police station like a bag of rubbish.

I am aware that this is the latest in a series of worsening attacks against people in Jalangi in the lead up to a public tribunal on starvation in the area that is being convened on September 23 and 24. The worsening attacks appear to be aimed at intimidating the local populace against speaking out during the course of the tribunal's hearings in the vicinity.

The police conduct that led to this latest needless death must not go unpunished. A thorough and independent investigation should be conducted into the behavior of the police during their alleged assault of the victim. Charges must then be laid against those suspected to have played a role in the victim’s assault and death and the case brought before a court of law as soon as possible. Immediate suspension of duty should also be passed against those police officers who are to face court. All forms of threat and intimidation towards the victim’s family, as has already been experienced, must also be stopped without delay.

The general atmosphere of terror that is being incited among the local population by the police and other authorities must also be remedied immediately.

I look to your immediate intervention in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND A LETTER TO:

Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Chief Minister
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings, Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 2214 5555 (O) / 2280 0631 (R)
Fax: +91 33 2214 5480 / 2214 1341
Email: cm@wb.gov.in , cm@writerscal.gov.in 

PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:

1. Mr. Naren Dey
Minister of Food and Supply
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings
Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA

Fax: +91 33 2252 2628

2. Mr. Subhas Awasthi
Director General of Police
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings
Kolkata-1
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 4498 / 2214 5486
Email: padgp@wbpolice.gov.in 

3. Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen
Chairperson
West Bengal Human Rights Commission
Bhabani Bhavan, Alipore
Kolkata - 700027
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 4797259 / 5558866
Fax: +91 33 4799633
Email: wbhrc@cal3.vsnl.net.in

4. Mr. Jean Ziegler
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
c/o Mr. Carlos Villan Duran
Room 4-066, OHCHR, Palais Wilson,
Rue des Paquis 52, Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9300
Fax: +41 22 9179010
Email: sect.hchr@unog.ch 

5. Mr. Gian Pietro Bordignon
Country Director
World Food Programme
2 Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar,
New Delhi - 110057
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 2615 0001
Fax: +91 11 2615 0019


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Fax: +91 33 2252 2628

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-163-2005
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.