Home / News / Urgent Appeals / INDIA: Custodial death of a man in Kharagpur due to severe torture by Railway Protection Force

INDIA: Custodial death of a man in Kharagpur due to severe torture by Railway Protection Force

November 8, 2005

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

8 November 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------
UA-198-2005: INDIA: Custodial death of a man in Kharagpur due to severe torture by Railway Protection Force

INDIA: Police torture, custodial death, impunity, rule of law
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, about the death of a man due to severe torture by the Railway Police Force on 28 October 2005 in Kharagpur, Medinipore District, West Bengal.

On October 20, the railway protection force (RPF) arrested the victim, Seikh Safibul from his house as he was alleged to have committed a theft from a diesel shop belonging to the Kharagpur railway the day before.

It is also alleged that after his arrest, he was severely beaten and tortured and also given electric shocks by the RPF personnel while in their custody. On October 21, the Medinipore court ordered him to go for medical treatment which he underwent until October 23. He was once again admitted to the Medinipore medical college and subsequently died there on October 28.

Seikh’s wife lodged a complaint with the Kharagpur Town police station under Indian Penal Code sections 342, 340 and 506 (case no 171/2005). However, no action has been taken as yet. Unfortunately no death certificate has been issued to date by the Medinipore Medical College Hospital and the report of either the postmortem or the magisterial inquest has also not been released.

We therefore call for your urgent intervention. Please ask the Director General of Police to order an impartial inquiry into this incident and see that the perpetrators are duly punished. Adequate compensation must also be granted to the family of the victim.

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

Victim: Seikh Safibul, age 55 years
Address: Santinagar, Kharagpur Police Station, Medinipore District, West Bengal, India
Place of incident: Railway Protection Force Cell (East Post), Kharagpur
Alleged perpetrators:
1. M.K. Singh
2. B.C. Mallick
3. M. Bharda
4. D.N. Singh
5. J.N. Singh
6. R.K. Sahoo
7. Amiya Nandan Singh, Senior Security Officer, Kharagpur Division
(All the above belong to the Railway Protection Force, East Post, Kharagpur)

Case Details:

Seikh Safibul, 55-years-old and the owner of a spare parts and scrap iron shop was arrested from his house on October 20 by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) as they alleged he had committed a theft from a diesel shop belonging to the Kharagpur Railway the day before.

It is alleged that Seikh was severely tortured, beaten and even given electric shocks while in the custody of the RPF on the day of his arrest. On October 21, he was produced before the Magistrate’s court, Medinipore. The victim was so ill that he could barely submit his statement before the court and seeing his condition, the court ordered for his treatment. He was then admitted to the Medinipore Medical College and Hospital and after primary treatment was taken to the Sub-divisional Hospital in Kharagpur.

On October 24, Seikh was once again submitted to the Medinipore Medical College and Hospital in a critical state and died there on October 28.

The victim’s wife, Sabera Bibi lodged a complaint against the perpetrators under Indian Penal Code sections 342, 340 and 506 (case no 171/2005) at the Kharagpur Town police station. It is to be noted that the investigating officer of this case is Mr. Dilip Kumar Roy, Officer-in-Charge at the Kharagpur Town Police Station.

On the day of Seikh’s death, the people of Santinagar protested by blocking the roads near the Kharagpur bus stand demanding the arrest and suspension of the Officer-in-Charge of the Railway Protection Force (East Post). A statement given by Mr. Lakshikant Ghosh., the Superintendent of the Medical College and Hospital, Medinipore confirms that Seikh was admitted to the hospital with deep injuries on his head and shoulder, which were x-rayed. The victim’s son, Kallu, says that his father was severely beaten and had injury marks on various parts of his body. Sabeera also alleges that her husband was beaten to death because he failed to offer bribes to the police, which he had done earlier.

To date no death certificate has been issued by the hospital authorities. The postmortem report is yet to be released and no findings of the magisterial inquest have been given.

We strongly condemn this torture at the hands of those very people who are supposed to provide security and enforce laws. The perpetrators must be immediately suspended from service and the all records regarding the crime must be made public so as to reduce the risk of tampering by the perpetrators. The perpetrators also must be made to pay compensation to the relatives of the victim. To ensure all these investigation of the case MUST be handled by an independent unit, outside the parameters of the local RPF Station. This case is yet another clear example where investigation into cases of custodial violence often lacks avenues for transparency and impartiality. Given the Indian context, it is extremely risky to entrust the investigation of the case with the same officers responsible for the command of the police station where the crime was committed.

India has refused to ratify the Convention against Torture on the pretext that the domestic law and the mechanisms available are capable enough in dealing with the crime. However, torture in custody is on the increase in India, whereas the perpetrators are left unpunished. We therefore urge the Government of India to ratify the Convention against Torture at the earliest and introduce domestic legislations to prevent such cases in the future.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Director General of Police to order an impartial inquiry into this incident and see that the perpetrators are duly punished and the victim’s family is adequately compensated for their loss.

Sample letter:
------------------

Dear

INDIA: Custodial death of a man in Kharagpur due to severe torture by Railway Protection Force

Victim: Seikh Safibul, age 55 years
Address: Santinagar, Kharagpur Police Station, Medinipore District, West Bengal, India
Place of incident: Railway Protection Force Cell (East Post), Kharagpur
Alleged perpetrators:
1. M.K. Singh
2. B.C. Mallick
3. M. Bharda
4. D.N. Singh
5. J.N. Singh
6. R.K. Sahoo
7. Amiya Nandan Singh, Senior Security Officer, Kharagpur Division
(All the above belong to the Railway Protection Force, East Post, Kharagpur)

I am deeply concerned to hear of the death of a man due to severe torture by the Railway Police Force on 28 October 2005 in Kharagpur, Medinipore District, West Bengal.

Seikh Safibul, the victim, owned a shop of scrap iron and spare parts. On 20 October 2005, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested him from his house as he was alleged to have committed a theft from a diesel shop belonging to the Kharagpur railway, the day before.

It is alleged that after his arrest, Seikh was not only severely beaten and tortured but also given electric shocks by the RPF personnel while in their custody. On October 21, the Medinipore court ordered him to go for medical treatment, which he underwent until October 23. He was once again admitted to the Medinipore medical college and subsequently died there on October 28.

Seikh’s wife lodged a complaint with the Kharagpur Town police station under Indian Penal Code sections 342, 340 and 506 (case no 171/2005). However, no action has been taken as yet. Furthermore, no death certificate has been issued to date by the Medinipore Medical College Hospital and the report of either the postmortem or the magisterial inquest has also not been released.

I therefore call for your urgent intervention. Please order an impartial inquiry into this incident and see that the perpetrators are duly punished. Adequate compensation must also be granted to the family of the victim. I further urge the Government of India to ratify the Convention against Torture without delay and introduce stringent domestic legislations to prevent such cases in the future.

Yours sincerely,
-----------------

PLEASE SEND A LETTER TO:

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 

PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:

1. 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 

2. Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra
Minister-in-Charge
Ministry of Health
Writers' Buildings
Kolkata-700001
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 22145600; Extn:4117
Email: michealth@wb.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. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the question of torture
Attn: Mr. Safir Syed
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (general)
E-mail: ssyed@ohchr.org

5. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Atten: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org (ATTENTION: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTRA-JUDICIAL, SUMMARY, OR ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS)

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-198-2005
Countries :
Issues :
Document Actions
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
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.