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INDIA: A man died in police custody at the Hogelberia Police Station

October 27, 2003

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

27 October 2003

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UA-65-2003: INDIA: A man died in police custody at the Hogelberia Police Station

INDIA: Torture; Custodial Death
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Dear friends

The Asian human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man died in police custody at the Hogelberia Police Station in West Bengal, India. The reason of his death is clear and the police have not yet taken serious action to investigate on this matter. Your urgent action is required to pressure local authorities to investigate immediately on this case.

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

A man died in police custody at the Hogelberia Police Station

- Name of the victim: Mr. Deben Sardar, son of late Budu Sardar (46 years old)
- Address of the victim: Sardarpara, Arabpur Nadi District, West Bengal, India
- Perpetrators: Police officers attached to the Hogelberia Police Station
- Date of incident: from 12 October to 13 October 2003

At about 7:00pm on 12 October 2003, Deben Sardar, 46, of Sardarpara, Arabpur, Nadia District, West Bengal was arrested by the police from the Hogalberia Police Station. Deben Sardar, who is a labour worker from a tribal community called Santal, was a married man with six sons, and he was the breadwinner of his family. He was arrested along with four other friends, Vadu Sardar, Stefen Sardar, Suren Sard and a person whose name is not known. At the time of arrest, they were playing cards in a public place at Hogalberia, a remote village, at the Indo-Bangladesh border, which is about 200kms from Calcutta.

Allegedly, the arrest was made for an offence under section 290 of the Indian Penal Code (causing public nuisance), which is a petty offence and bailable. The maximum punishment for this offence is a fine of Rs. 200 (US$ 4). The police arrested Mr. Deben and his friends a violation of police procedure. They were not informed as to why they were arrested. None of their families were informed of the arrests. Mr. Deben and his friends were thrown into the police jeep and were taken to the Hogalberia Police Station. They requested bail but the police refused and all of them were put in the lockup.

The family members of Mr. Deban only came to know about his arrest the next day at noon. The police informed Deben¡¯s family that Deben was brought to the hospital at about 9:45am. He died at 1:45pm at the hospital. It is alleged that Mr. Deben developed some illness while in custody and he succumbed to this illness in hospital. However, Mr. Deben had no previous history of serious ailments.

By this time, Mr. Sogata Roy, the Officer-in-Charge of Hogalberia Police Station, released all of the four co-accused who were arrested along with Deben. The Sub Divisional Officer of Tehatta conducted an inquest on Deben¡¯s body. There were at least two external injury marks over Deben¡¯s abdomen, which was absent prior to arrest. The police, as well as the civil administration, are now trying to cover up the death without revealing the post mortem report, and no serious action has been taken by the police.

It is common in India for the police to arrest people at random and to torture them while in custody. In this case, all mandates regarding arrest were violated and the family members were not informed about the arrests of the victims. Had the family of the deceased been informed in time regarding the arrest, they could have at least known the actual cause of death. The manner in which the police and the civil administration are behaving after the arrest casts a shadow upon the entire incident. It is very unlikely that they will have access to the post mortem report in this case.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter, fax or e-mail to the addresses below expressing your concern about this serious case.

1. Dr. P.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
Email: presssecy@alpha.nic.in or Pressecy@Sansad.nic.in

2. Shri Justice A S Anand
Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission of India
Sardar Patel Bhawan
Sansad Marg, New Delhi - 110 001
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 2334 0891 / 2334 7065
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016
E-Mail: chairnhrc@nic.in

3. Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Chief Minister
Government of West Bengal
Fax: +91 33 22145480
Email: cm@wb.gov.in

4. Shri Justice Mukul Gopal Mukherji
Chairperson
West Bengal Human Rights Commission
Bhabani bhavan, Alipore,
Calcutta-700027
Tel: +91 33 4797259 / 5558866
Fax: +91 33 4799633

5. Mr. Theo C. van Boven
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917-9016
E-mail: <mailto:secrt.hchr@unog.ch>secrt.hchr@unog.ch

Sample letter:

Dear

A man died in police custody at the Hogelberia Police Station

- Name of the victim: Mr. Deben Sardar, son of late Budu Sardar (46 years old)
- Address of the victim: Sardarpara, Arabpur Nadi District, West Bengal, India
- Perpetrators: Police officers attached to the Hogelberia Police Station
- Date of incident: from 12 October to 13 October 2003

I am shocked to know about another custodial death reported from India.

On 12 October 2003, Deben Sardar, with four other persons, was arrested by the police from the Hogalberia Police Station for an offence under section 290 of the Indian Penal Code (causing public nuisance), which is a petty offence. The police did not inform them as to why they were arrested. In addition, none of their families were informed of the arrest. On 13 October, Deben Sardar died after he was sent to the hospital from the police station. According to the inquest on Deben¡¯s body conducted by the Sub Divisional Officer of Tehatta, there were at least two external injury marks over Deben¡¯s abdomen, which was absent prior to arrest.

The manner in which Mr. Deben and his friends were arrested and kept in custody for a petty offence reflects upon the nature of police action in India. Even though the Criminal Procedure Code and the Constitutional courts of India have categorically stated the procedures to be observed while taking a person into custody, the police in India are ignorant regarding this and seem to be purposefully violating the legal mandates.

In addition, the behavior of the administration after the arrest casts a shadow on the police action. I am afraid that it will be another example of the failure of rule of law in India because of police inaction.

I therefore urge you to take appropriate action to punish the police officers in charge of the Hogelberia Police Station who violated the procedural mandates of arrest and detention. I also urge you to order an independent inquiry into the case and bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible. I further urge you to provide compensation to the victim's family for the custodial death of Mr. Deben.

Sincerely yours,



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Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-65-2003
Countries :
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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.