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INDIA: Young man committed suicide after the police torture in West Bengal

January 28, 2005

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

28 January 2005
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UA-17-2005: INDIA: Young man committed suicide after the police torture in West Bengal

INDIA: Torture; Impunity; Rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, that a young man named Kartik Ghosh committed suicide after being tortured by a local businessman and an assistant sub-inspector (A.S.I.) of the Baluhati Police Camp under Domjur Police Station in Howrah District, West Bengal, India on 5 January 2005. His body was found by villagers the next day. According to eyewitnesses, Mr. Ghosh ended his life by jumping into a well due to the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the police.

On January 5, Mr. Ghosh reportedly went to the Baluhati Police Camp to lodge a complaint against a local businessman named Bimal Pradhan who allegedly interfered in breaking his sister's marriage alliance with the intention of developing a relationship with her. However, the police allegedly did not receive his complaint. It is important to note that Mr. Pradhan is an influential figure in the village. Instead, A.S.I. Pulin Behari Panda, who is a close friend of Mr. Pradhan's, brutally beat and humiliated the victim along with Mr. Pradhan who was present at the police station at that time. After the victim's death, Mr. Pradhan was arrested and there was a claim of a departmental inquiry against the responsible police officer. However, no serious action has been taken against A.S.I. Panda who was merely transferred to another post.

Your urgent action is required to correct this matter. Please write a letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal and urge him to ensure that the A.S.I. Panda is prosecuted and punished by law, and other police officers responsible for the failure to register the victim's complaint are also disciplined as well.

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

Name of the victim: Kartik Ghosh, 22 years old, a resident of Galuihati Village, Domjur Police Station, Howrah District, West Bengal, India 
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Pulin Behari Panda, Assistant Sub Inspector attached to the Baluhati Police Camp under Domjur Police Station
2. Biman Pradhan, a local businessman
Date of incident: 5 January 2005

Case details:

Kartik Ghosh (22) belonged to a very poor family in Galuihati Village, Howrah District, West Bengal, India. He lived with his widowed mother and a sister, Sonali, who was soon to be married to Bijoy Giri belonging to the same village. The alliance, however, did not last long and soon broke up due to the interference of a local businessman, Bimal Pradhan, who was interested in Sonali and wanted to develop a relationship with her. This angered Mr. Ghosh and on 5 January 2005, he went to the Baluhati Police Camp under the jurisdiction of the Domjur Police Station to lodge a complaint against Mr. Pradhan.

However, the police refused to file his complaint as Mr. Pradhan was an influential person amongst the local police. By chance, Mr. Pradhan was present at the time Mr. Ghosh went to the police camp, and heard Mr. Ghosh talking to Assistant Sub Inspector (A.S.I.) Pulin Behari Panda who happened to be his good friend. Mr. Ghosh was then brutally assaulted by the A.S.I. and later Mr. Pradhan joined him in abusing the victim in front of other policemen.  

Completely humiliated and frustrated, Mr. Ghosh, as reports of eyewitnesses go, committed suicide by jumping into a well. His body floating in the well was found the next day by villagers. Mr. Pradhan was arrested after a massive protest and demands by the local people. As for A.S.I. Panda, the superintendent of Police, Howrah, Mr. Mihir Bhattacharjee claimed that a departmental inquiry has started against him. However, instead of action being taken against him, the A.S.I. Panda was merely transferred out of the Baluhati Police Camp. 

This incident once again exposes the total failure of domestic mechanisms that are designed to defend human rights and safeguard citizen's rights in India. The AHRC urges the Government of India to ratify the CAT and to introduce corresponding domestic legislation to prevent law enforcement officers from committing such human rights violations.


SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal requesting him to order an immediate and thorough investigation in this serious case and punish the perpetrators responsible for torturing the victim. Please also send a copy of the letter to other relevant local authorities.

Sample letter:

Dear Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,

Re: INDIA: Young man committed suicide after the police torture in West Bengal


Name of the victim: Kartik Ghosh, 22 years old, a resident of Galuihati Village, Domjur Police Station, Howrah District, West Bengal, India 
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Pulin Behari Panda, Assistant Sub Inspector (A.S.I.) attached to the Baluhati Police Camp under Domjur Police Station
2. Biman Pradhan, a local businessman
Date of incident: 5 January 2005

I am extremely disturbed to hear of the death of Kartik Ghosh (22), who committed suicide after being tortured by A.S.I. Pulin Behari Panda of the Baluhati Police Camp in Howrah District, West Bengal, India, on 5 January 2005.

According to the information I have received, the police at the Baluhati Police Camp refused to file the victim's complaint against Bimal Pradhan, a local businessman who allegedly interfered in breaking his sister's marriage alliance to develop a relationship with her. The A.S.I. Pulin Behari Panda, a close friend of Mr. Pradhan's, brutally assaulted the victim along with Mr. Pradhan who, by chance, was present there at that time. The victim then committed suicide by jumping into a well due to the humiliation he suffered. I was informed that Mr. Pradhan has been arrested only after a large protest by the local people but the A.S.I. Panda is till at large. Although there was a claim of a departmental inquiry against him, he was merely transferred to another post and no criminal action has been taken against him.

Under the circumstances, I urge you to look into this incident immediately so that speedy legal/disciplinary action can be taken against the concerned A.S.I. Panda. I also urge you to take appropriate action against those who neglected their duty by refusing to receive the victim's complaint. The victim's family should be duly compensated for their loss and the perpetrators made to pay for this.

To ensure that such abuses do not continue in India, I further request you to raise your concern, as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, to the Government of India to ratify the International Convention against Torture (CAT) and implement it domestically.

Yours sincerely,


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SEND A LETTER TO:

Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Chief Minister and Minister in Charge of Home (Police) Department
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
E-mail: cm@wb.gov.in

SEND COPIES TO:

1. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
President
Office of the President
Rashtrapati Bhawan
New Delhi, 110004
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 3016767 (Joint Secretary), 3014507 (Personal Secretary)
Fax: +91 11 3017290, 3014570
E-mail: presssecy@alpha.nic.in or Pressecy@Sansad.nic.in

2. Shri Justice A. S. Anand
Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission of India
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi-110001
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 23074448
E-mail: mailto:chairnhrc@nic.in

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

4. Shri Shivraj Patil
Minister of Home Affairs
Griha Mantralaya Room No. 104
North Block, Central Secretariat
New Delhi 110001
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 23092011, 23092161   
Fax: +91 11 2301 5750, 2309 3750, 2309 2763

5. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn: Mr. Safir Syed
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (general)


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-17-2005
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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.