Conduct worthy of a police state

Conduct worthy of a police state
Siddharth Varadarajan
The peremptory deportation of a Nepali student from India and the unlawful detention of a tribal woman shot by the police in Chhattisgarh raise troubling questions about the power of our ‘national security’ apparatus.
The Indian Constitution and various laws framed under it grant the Indian state and its agencies enormous power to regulate the movement of persons, especially when the bogey of national security is raised. These powers include the preventive detention of citizens under one pretext or the other and, under the Foreigners Act, the summary deportation of foreign nationals, including those that have legally entered the country and have not violated the laws of the land in any way. Indian nationals who are unable to prove their citizenship to the satisfaction of the police are also subject to summary deportation, without the automatic right to be heard by a court.
Implicit in the grant of such extraordinary powers in a democracy is the understanding that the exercise of authority will be governed by reason and justice in the broadest possible sense. When these principles are jettisoned, arbitrariness and abuse of power become the norm, exposing, under the brittle veneer of democratic paint, the ugly face of a police state answerable to no one other than itself.
Nitu Singh, a young woman from Nepal, is a final year student at the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India at Pune. On the night of December 5, 2009, the city police landed up at the FTII hostel without any warrant or paperwork, took her into custody, gathered her personal effects and moved her to Mumbai, from where she was deported to Kathmandu the next day.
The only reason cited by the Pune police was that Ms. Singh had indulged in “anti-national activities”. No detail of these alleged activities was provided, no mention was made of which Indian laws she had violated and no attempt was made to substantiate the charges. The Indian Express, which broke the story, quoted Ravindra Sengaonkar, the city’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch), as saying: “Nitu Singh was deported to Nepal because she was found to be involved in anti-national activities. It was a high-level secret operation which our team completed successfully in quick time… We are not supposed to share details. The case is high-profile and various investigative agencies are involved.”
Whatever the nature of her “anti-India activities”, one thing is clear: they were not serious enough to warrant the filing of criminal charges. So why was she deported?
Nitu Singh is the wife of Amaresh Singh, a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly. He has also served as an interlocutor between the Nepali Congress, which is his own party, the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and the Government of India, a process in which India’s external intelligence agency, RAW, has been deeply involved.
According to women’s activists in Pune who have taken up her case, Nitu’s deportation was engineered by her husband, from whom she had grown estranged over the past year or so. On his part, Amaresh has denied playing any role in the entire affair.
Of all the issues this deportation involves, the state of the Singh marriage need not detain us. Husbands and wives fight all the time. When global travel is involved, marital disputes can take on very complex dimensions. But what is unusual is the speed with which Nitu’s expulsion from India took place and the “national security” grounds invoked by the authorities. Despite the enormous latitude granted to the police by Section 3 (2) (c) of the Foreigners Act, foreign nationals are usually deported from India (a) if they are illegal migrants, (b) if they have overstayed their visa, (c) if they have finished serving their sentence for any crime they might have been convicted of, or (d) if their presence in the country is deemed by a minister to be prejudicial to public order. In most cases, the process of deportation is so leisurely that some of those targeted even manage to bring their case before a court, or to escape, as the three Pakistanis who relieved themselves of their police escort in Delhi did last week.
In Nitu Singh’s case, however, none of the usual grounds for deportation obtain. That is why those who took the decision to deport her chose “anti-national activities” as the reason. They gambled on the fact that the smokescreen of national security is usually a thick enough deterrent to ward off troublesome questions. While the S.P.S. Rathore case has taught us that no abuse of law or process is beyond the local constabulary, it is hard to imagine the Pune police dreaming up this deportation on their own steam. Indeed, Mr. Sengaonkar gave the game away by speaking of a “high level” operation and the involvement of other agencies. Since the Ministry of Home Affairs under P. Chidambaram has ordered a probe into this matter, one can safely assume that the “agencies” involved are not those that report to the MHA.
In a speech last month, Mr. Chidamabaram drew attention to the fact that several agencies involved in counter-terrorism report not to him but to the Cabinet Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the National Security Advisor. Among these are RAW, the Aviation Research Centre and the National Technical Research Organisation. Could one of those agencies have been involved in the deportation? If so, who within the national security establishment decided Nitu Singh was engaging in “anti-national activities” and what evidence do they have to substantiate the charge? Was Amaresh Singh able to influence this process in any way? These are the questions the Home Minister will hopefully ask as he seeks to get to the bottom of a case that makes India look more like a banana republic than a democracy with rule of law.
If the power to expel a foreigner can be exercised so arbitrarily, this is because the power to prevent the movement of citizens within the country is subject to the same degree of caprice and contempt for the rule of law.
A young Adivasi woman named Sambho Sodi who was injured in police firing in Dantewada last year was prevented by the Chhattisgarh police from travelling to Delhi last week for medical treatment to her wounded leg. The grounds for her detention were that the police needed to record her statement about the incident in which she alleges the security forces fired upon unarmed civilians near Gompad village on October 1, 2009. The police, which claimed the Gompad shooting was part of an anti-Naxalite operation, had all the time in the world to record her statement but chose not to do so as long as she was in Dantewada. But the day she needed to travel to Delhi for treatment, they compelled her to get down from the vehicle she was travelling in and took her in for questioning, prompting her colleagues and friends to urgently move the Supreme Court.
On January 7, the Supreme Court ordered the State of Chhatisgarh “not to interfere in any manner whatsoever” with Ms. Sodi coming to Delhi for her medical treatment and to not “create any obstacle in her way”. At the time of going to press, however, activists handling her case said the police had still not cleared her departure for Delhi. Chhattisgarh has become one of India’s most notorious “no rights” zones, where state-supported vigilantes in the name of Salwa Judum and ‘Special Police Officers’ are free to attack those who are critical of the actions of the security forces. As matters stand, the Chhattisgarh government is already in violation of Supreme Court orders on the rehabilitation of Adivasis displaced by the Salwa Judum. How long the state police will prevent Ms. Sodi from travelling to Delhi remains to be seen.
In their own way, Nitu Singh and Shambho Sodi are both victims of a security establishment which operates on the penumbra of legality and whose forays to the dark side frequently remain unseen and unheard. Rare are the moments when we get to shine the light on them, rarer still the times when senior ministers undertake to right a wrong. The media and the judiciary must make the most of these opportunities.
In both the cases, I suspect, the respective state police/administration transgressed the boundaries of law.
Forget about the specific agency handling the case, it was the Maharashtra Police though; can anyone be deported out of the country without a court order? Would the knowledgeable ones comment?
I was for a while a part of the resistance to the blanket deportation drive undertaken by the Sena-BJP regime targetting "Bangladeshis" in (the then) Bombay and dispatching them off to Bangladesh across West Bengal / Bangladesh border.
Even these defenceless people, Bengali speaking poor migrant Muslims, had to be produced before a designated court. That was one of the entry points for intervention. Even in Assam, there is special tribunal, I guess.
And Neetu Singh was just wrenched off from one of the most prestigious academic institutions of the country and bundled out in an airplane!
I wonder why the activists who have admirably taken up Ms Singh's case are not approaching a law court to fix responsibilities?
Could someone comment?
Similarly, Sodi Sambo was never formally arrested. Just abducted while on her way to Raipur. And then kept barricaded from activists and journalists with ununiformed police persons!
Even the Supreme Court while mercifully passing an order directing the Chhattisgarh state administration to let her proceed to Delhi for her further medical treatment has apparently overlooked this aspect and taken a lenient view.
As a result, the state administration is delaying her release as much as possible. May even try to "persuade" her change her mind.
These are extremely disturbing pointers.
The Ruchika case has opened up a Pandora's box exposing brazen misuse of law and "power" by the high and mighty and shameful collusions at multiple levels.
Much more than any other similar case in the recent past, this one has also stirred up a public cry for "systemic" reforms.
And, mercifully, the state has taken some small but welcome steps.
There is a move, still only a move, towards compulsory registration of the FIRs with a tightened provision for penal measures in case of false or frivolous complaints. Madhya Pradesh has reportedly already implemented it. A facility for online registration of FIRs could significantly help. Himachal is expected to set an example.Initially, the relatively privileged ones would mostly benefit. But then the effects will spread, as in the case of the RTI.
There is now a provision for aggrieved complainant in a criminal case to directly go in for appeal to the higher court. That's a welcome change.
This momentum needs be further taken ahead, and must not get dissipated.
The human rights organisations must seriously apply themselves.
Sukla

Inhuman Gunmen of Indian democracy

The India's Inhuman Gunmen

By Gladson Dungdung
Jharkhandmirror.org
11 January, 2010
When the people of the entire world were greeting to each other, bursting crackers and enjoying delicious food on the occasion of the new year 2010, the police of Chhatarpur, Town and Sadar police stations of Palamu district, (which is the most Maoist infested area according to the government and the media reports) in Jharkhand, were very much engaged in humiliating, torturing and beating to Rajendra Yadav of Telaria village (Chhatarpur) alleging him as a Naxalite without any proof, which led to his death. He had been illegally detained in the police custody for more than 60 hours. The police justified it saying, “Since the Maoists had planted landmines on the road therefore Rajendra Yadav was not taken to the court.” Interestingly, the police did not recover any landmine from the spot therefore one can see it as an attempt to bury the inhuman acts of the Indian’s inhuman gunmen.
According to Dashrath Yadad, the father of Rajendra Yada, his son was taken under the custody by the police of Chhatarpur police station in the morning on December 30, 2009. On the next day, he went to Chhatarpur police station for inquiring about his son and the police told him that his son was sent to the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP). Thereafter, he immediately rushed to the SP’s office where he did not find his son and returned home with the empty hand. On 1st January, Dashrath Yadav came to know about the detention of his son in Town Police station and subsequently, he reached to the police station at 3’O clock in the afternoon. He was shocked to see Rajendra, who was suffering from terrible pain and not even able to speak clearly. Dashrath Yadav went back to home after painful experience. In the early morning on January 2, the police informed him about the death of his son, which was not unexpected.
The inhuman acts of the police did not end here. The next step of the police was to destroy the evidence of their inhuman acts. The police conducted post-mortem in absence of family members of the deceased. The medical officer of Daltenganj Sadar Hospital, Dr. Ajay Kumar Pathak was either bribed or influenced by the police for preparing a false post-mortem report, which states the cause of death as long illness of Rajendra Yadav rather than torture, beating on ill-treatment in the police stations, which created anger among the people. Since, the villagers were very upset on inhuman acts of the police therefore there was a public outrage against the police. After getting support of the people, the deceased’s family demanded for the re-post-mortem of the dead body, a high level inquiry on the matter and compensation to them.
Consequently, the Jharkhand government accepted couple of their demands. A team of doctors was constituted for conducting the re-post-mortem. The second post-mortem was conducted in Ranchi. The doctors found injuries in inside and outside of the dead body and reasoned the heavy bleeding as the cause of death. Finally, a criminal case was filed against the police of all the three police stations, who were involved in the inhuman treatment of Rajendra Yadav. The government also constituted a team of inquiry consisting of IAS officer A.N. Pandey and IPS officer Murarilal Meena. Ironically, they did not visit to the village of Rajendra Yadav and returned from the office of Chhatarpur SDO. The reason told was ‘security’. Question is why are these officers paid the public money if they are only concerned about their security?
Obviously, Rajendra Yadav is not the only one, who has undergone through such inhuman treatments of the India’s legal gunmen but there are hundreds of people undergo through the same kinds of inhuman treatments all most everyday across the country. There are thousands of painful testimonies of rape after rape, torture after torture and killing after killing by the police and security forces, whose role is to protect us, that’s what our legal texts describe. The fact is our legal gunmen are very much indulged in the inhuman acts of rape, torture, killing, bribery, threatening and the list goes on. In fact, the FIRs are not registered easily, fake encounters are organized for self interest and the impunity is always enjoyed by them. One has to bribe to the police in every check post and the police station. Now, the police stations have become the place of ill-treatment, torture, killing, bribery and manipulation. What kind of the national security is this?
Indeed, the top copes are not different from the small gunmen. We have heard the story of how IG Natrajan repeatedly raped Sushma Baraik an Adivasis women in Ranchi by luring her for a job. We know how the IPS officer Sumit Singh Sani exploited her women colleague and of course we are fully aware about the heartbreaking inhuman acts of former Haryana DGP, SPS Rathore. In fact, everyone is aware about the inhuman acts of the former DIG of Rajasthan Madhukar Tondon, Narendra Modi’s top cope Banjara and there is a long list of our top copes, who are very much indulged in the inhuman acts. Many reports suggest that the women were raped, innocent were tortured and many lost their lives due to inhuman acts of the India’s legal gunmen, which is much more than the people who lost their lives in the Naxal violence. Of course, one should not justify the Naxal violence. However, our text books teach us that the police are to protect us and maintain law and order, which is partly true therefore our children should be also taught about the inhuman acts of the police and security forces so that they would be always prepared to face them.
Needless to say that the women are raped, poor are tortured and many innocent people are killed in the name of the national security. Therefore, the corporate home minister P. Chidambaram must respond us before going for the second phase of the operation green hunt in the state of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh that why his gunmen are so inhuman? Can he give us the guarantee of security by these inhuman legal gunmen? Do the training procedures destroy humanity of these gunmen? Why doesn’t he go for a debate in the Indian parliament to find out the procedures to make these inhuman gunmen to human ones? And will he start operation red hunt against his inhuman gunmen to right their wrongs or will he allow them to enjoy the impunity as they have been enjoying for the decades? Perhaps, if we don’t respond these questions now, the humiliation, ill-treatment, torture, rape and killing of thousands of Rajendras by these inhuman gunmen of India will continue in the name of the national security.
Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer from Jharkhand. He can be reached at gladsonhractivist@...-- Gladson DungdungH R Activist and WriterRanchi, JharkhandEmail: gladsonhractivist@...Website: www.jharkhandmirror.org

Fake Killings: People as Trophies

Fake Killings: People as Trophies
Subhash Gatade May 6, 2007People who had a faint glimmer of hope about Kausar Bi’s whereabouts finally know that she is no more. As the counsel for the Gujarat himself
admitted before the Supreme Court, she was killed, burnt and her ashes were thrown in some field. But it does not throw light on the fact that who killed her ?It appears that Gujarat government wants to buy time to divulge the information. But the CID report filed by Ms Geeta Johri is very clear on this aspect.The interim report of the IG (CID) Geeta Johri - who investigated the case as per instruction from the Supreme Courst - know that Kausarbi was personally strangulated to death by D.H.Vanjara in the very presence of his wife and son (Bhaskar, 28 th April 2007).Imagine the head of the Anti Terrorism Squad, who till the other day functioned as DIG killing an innocent woman and using his position to cover up the crime. As things stand today the story of the encounter killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh in cold blood, followed by similar killing of his friend Tulsiram Prajapati and later his own wife Kausar Bi is getting murkier everyday. Thanks to Ruhabuddin Sheikh who persisted in his attempts to get justice and ultimately approached the Supreme Courts to intervene in this matter in which his brother was killed in a fake encounter and sister in law had gone missing. Today three senior police officers - two from Gujarat and one from Rajasthan are behind bars charged with kidnapping and murder of an innocent citizen. If the Gujarat government is compelled to follow the leads then it will have to apprehend more than two dozen other police officials from both the states who participated in the whole operations at some level.The manner in which the fake killing(s) have snowballed into a major embarassment for the ’invincible looking’ Modi regime is for everyone to see. Independent analysts have rightly pointed out that Amit Shah, a close buddy of Narendra Modi and in charge of the Home Ministry, who supposedly went all out to save the guilty officers, may also be sacrificed to save his mentor from further discomfirt. And looking at the evidence which is ranged against his buddies, the day is not far off when ’Hindu Hriday Samrat’ Modi may also have to personally face the music.IIOfcourse few things are crystal clear about this killing of an innocent citizen and packaging it as the killing of dreaded terrorist belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba. Firstly, the killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh was a joint operation by two states Gujarat and Rajasthan- both ruled by Sangh-BJP people- executed by officers who happened to be very close to the top echleons of the people in power. It was not for nothing that Gujarat government asked Ms. Geeta Johri to hand over her charge to another person, when she was to present the final report and Gulab Chand Kataria, the home minister of Rajasthan personally flew in a special plane with his other officers, to plead the case for Dinesh Kumar, a senior police officer with his government who is behind bars for this encounter.Secondly, if one were to believe the journalist who played a pivotal role in exposing the killing, then the task of eliminating Soharabuddin was undertaken at the behest of ( by taking ’Supari’ from) the rivals of the deceased and crores of Rs were exchanged for this purpose.Thirdly, it was not for the first time that Gujarat police have organised an encounter killing and presented it as killing of terrorists who had come to kill Modi, Togadia or any other similar rabble rouser from the Hindutva Brigade’. Does anybody remember the killing of Isharat Jahan, a college girl from Bombay along with three other persons a few years ago or the killing of Sami Ali Pathan and packaging it as another ’victory’ of the Gujarat police over ’terrorists’. While the opposition has claimed that during Vanjara’s tenure at the Anti Terrorism Squad 15 people were killed in 9 fake encounters. Asian Age (30 th April 2007) tells us that the ’Rogue Gujarat Cop Killed 13’. But it would be opportune to have a look at the manner in which he went about it. Ahmedabad, April 29: Controversial Gujarat IPS officer and “encounter specialist” D.G. Vanzara, now under arrest for the death of one Sohrabuddin in November 2005, has killed at least 13 people in the past few years on the alleged grounds that they were plotting to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders. He has also arrested scores of “terrorists” on similar charges.To his colleagues and others he has depicted these fake encounters as “patriotic acts” which were evidence of his “deshbhakti.” The alleged “terrorists” who he had caught and killed, claiming that there were members of international terrorist outfits and engaged on deadly missions to kill Mr Modi and others, were all, barring one exception, armed only with “tamanchas”. These indigenously-made weapons are usually not the assassination weapon of choice employed by terrorist outfits. Mr Vanzara did this to justify the absence of injury to policemen while they were on such encounter missions.Fourthly, it is clear that the top bosses of the state were complicit in what was being done at the ATS level. Any layperson can gather that the killing spree engaged in by these rogue cops helped enhance the threat perception of ’Hindu Hriday Samrats’ inside as well as outside Gujarat and add glory to their image. It was not for nothing that they saw to it that not a single complaint reached the State Human Rights Commission against him. The clout which Vanjara enjoyed with the political masters can be gauged from the fact that he even managed to get his younger brother Vanraj Vanzara, who was with the state forest department, sent on deputation to the Gujarat State Human Rights Commission. It is not surprising to note that till date, the state human rights commission has not received any complaints against Mr Vanzara.IIIIt is worth noting that BJP, which finds itself on a sticky wicket in this fake killings has devised multiple lines of defence to avoid further embarassment to its ’poster boy’ Narendra Modi. Chances are that if the interim reports of the IG(CID) becomes public or CBI or any other investigation into the case is taken up at the federal level, then it would become further impossible for it to defend Modi.They understand it very well that if investigations proceed in this fake killings case, it would be incumbent upon the agency to have a look at similar encounters in the state which happened in recent past, to look for any ’method in this madness’.It will have to unravel the mystery where similar sounding post-facto justifications for the killings were peddled and pliant media was further used to add to the aura of Narendra Modi or his other buddies.Another important aspect of this investigation would be revisiting all those cases where people were apprehended on the suspicion that they were plotting to finish any of those Hindutva bigwigs and put behind bars under any of those draconian laws which are there in the kitty of the government. The recent acquittal of four innocent persons who had to languish in jail for around four years on similar trumped up charges is a case in point.The BJP has suddenly discovered that the concern expressed by justice loving people over the encounter killing of an innocent citizen is ’glorifying criminals’.They have dished out n number of charges filed against the people who were killed which were filed supposedly in different police stations in the two states. But in their overenthusiasm to save their skin, they forgot the basic constitutional premise which has devised mechanisms to deal with criminals in a legitimate manner. And it was not surprising that when cornered by the media, whether it believes in the rule of law, it was found fumbling for words.It has also taken a position that fake killings are a norm everywhere in today’s times where the justice delivery mechanisms are already cracking under its own weight. They are thus of a considered opinion that it is not proper that Gujarat or for that matter Rajasthan should be singled out for that.Following the old dictum that offence is the best defence, they have rediscovered that other parties are soft towards terrorism and BJP is the only party which is supposedly playing a no nonsense battle against terrorism.There was a news in a section of the media that after lying low for some time Mr Narendra Modi is planning to go on the offensive on this issue. It is learnt that he has asked his colleagues to make a plan where the killing of Sohrabuddin could be projected as the Saffron Party’s resolute battle against terrorism. It wants to project that Congress as well as left as supporters of criminals/terrorists. The only lacunae in this whole plan is the killing of Kausarbi as well as Tulsiram Prajapati, a backward caste Hindu.IVOne hopes that further details would come out in the ensuing investigations and we would get to know the real culprits in the whole case. But the moot question is that can the fake encounter killings could be reduced to the depradations of few officers who were out to make some fast buck or gain greater proximity to their political masters or one should look for the larger gameplan hatched by the powers that be which made such killings inevitable.Perhaps one should look at the three year old plan made by the Gujarat goverment supposedly to ’counter terrorists’It sounds surprising that the ’revealations about the counter terrorism plan of the Gujarat police’ (The Rediff Special, Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad, How Gujarat plans to counter terrorists, July 15, 2004) which sent shivers down the spine of the religious minorities in the state especially the Muslims then which were yet to recover from the trauma and tribulations of the post Godhra carnage could not become a matter of debate at the national level then also.The implicit understanding (as per the Gujarat government) behind this plan was that the ‘state has become a haven for terrorists’ ( read Islamic terrorists)’. In an interview to the same emag the additional CP of Ahmedabad Mr Vanzara had hammered this point home in no uncertain terms plainly stating that ..After the Godhra carnage and the subsequent riots terrorists of a variety of types and shapes are aiming at Gujarat. Gujarat has become the destination for terrorists.(The Rediff Interview July 27,2004) . As a precursor to this plan a detailed survey of the number of mosques, madrasas at the state level was done and the various Islamic organisations active inside the state and their alleged linkages with other national-international organisations was also noted. As per the plan every policeperson from the constable level upwards was instructed to keep a close watch on the situation at the ground level. S/He was also asked to keep tabs on meetings at masjids and the goings on in the Madrasas. Activities of the Tablighi Jamaat were to be keenly watched under this plan. It is clear to even a layperson that the neatly designed ‘counter terrorism plan’ of the Gujarat government at the behest of the state government stigmatised the whole minority community in uncertain terms. The most ironic part was that it did not even bother to mention the extremist elements within the Hindu community at whose behest the postGodhra pogrom of the minorities mainly Muslims was undertaken. And the need to keep a close watch on the controversial activities of the plethora of organisations of the Hindutva Brigade and its leaders was thus skillfully scuttled. The action plan conveniently missed the warning by the intelligence people which has clearly asked to rein in Hindutva fanatics. To quote : ’intelligence bureau people overseeing the national scene had warned the central government to rein in elements like Praveen Togadia and Ashok Singhal if it was keen to nip the fresh sources for terrorist activities in the bud.’ (Jansatta, Hindi Daily, 5 th Sep, 2003, Delhi, ‘Intelligence bureau warns the government about Togadia and Singhal )According to the top bosses of the Gujarat police the plan had traced its origins to the murder of former state home minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Haren Pandya. It is still being said that the murder of Mr Haren Pandya opened up the eyes of the state government that the state has become a breeding ground for terrorists belonging to organisations like the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Ofcourse it is another matter that till date Mr Vithalbhai Pandya, father of Mr Haren Pandya has consistently maintained that his son’s murder was politically motivated and has pointed his fingers at the higher ups in the state BJP for their complicity in the same. As a mark of protest against the state government’s reticence to investigate his charges, in the elections to the parliament in 2004 he even contested as an independent candidate against Mr L.K.Advani. Looking at the track record of the state government in pursuing matters of governance and the way its whole apparatus unfolded itself in a partisan manner during the 2002 pogrom , the ‘counter terrorism plan’ did not sound surprising.It is a fact that the trauma of the minorities has not ended with the pogrom only. The way they were subjected to all round harassment right from relief distribution to apprehending the guilty is for everyone to see. Till date a significant section of the Muslim population in the state is facing economic boycott. Also the way the highly draconian POTA was misused and innocent persons were victimised in the state in post pogrom times is a fact which has also been well documented. A report filed by the AFP ( New Delhi, Sep 03) had said that our of the 240 booked under POTA which carries a death penalty 239 were Muslims and one was a Sikh. While muslims had been booked for three different attacks on Hindus, including the burning of Sabaramati Express at Godhra last year, the attack on Ahmedabad’s Akshardham temple and the murder of former minister Haren Pandya, it was clear that despite the participation of thousands of Hindus in the pogrom none of the cases were found to be a fit enough for clamping POTA against him/her.It need be added that this ‘counter terrorism plan of the state police’ had come as a sequel to the amended Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill (GUJCOC), which was passed by the Gujarat assembly in the beginning of June ’04. The Bill had almost all the provisions of POTA, including the authority to hold the accused in jail without trial and provisions giving jurisdiction only to special courts to try the cases under the Act. It would be naivette to think that the said action plan which is partisan in nature and communal in content would have seen the light of the day without the directions from the top bosses of the Parivar. Ofcourse the rationale behind the plan was not difficult to decipher.V.Even a cursory glance at the action plan - which largely went unnoticed in the rest of the country - makes it clear that it has provided a free hand to the law and order people in the state to continuously harass minorities as part of their ’mission’ of countering terrorism. The next step then becomes catching hold of innocent people belonging to the minority community at regular intervals and bumping them offf supposedly to provide a post facto justification of the ’success of the action plan’.Isharat Jahan, Sami Ali Pathan or Soharabuddin Sheikh and many of their ilk - independent citizens of a secular nation, then merely become ’trophies’ which are displayed from time to time to convince the pliant masses the danger such ’other’ people present to the tranquility of the stateThere is no doubt the likes of Vanjara and all his associates in the encounter killing who have committed crime against humanity be given exemplary punishment but simultaneously we should enhance our efforts so that the real culprits in this game are not allowed to go scot free. People who have been peddling agenda of hate for the last eighty plus years, people who have no qualms in presenting the Gujarat genocide 2002 as ’successful experiment’, people who promote such ’Dirty Harrys’ to do the ’needful’.

The Panacea for Militancy- Through criminal ways of Molester cop-the inside story

The popular perception created through media hype was that It is the Kanwar Pal Singh Gill who provided exemplary leadership and lead the Punjab Police to turn the tide against militants. Fact remains popular public support for such a militant movement that may resort to the killings of innocents was neither part of the tenets of sikh religion nor it ever exhisted. What exhisted was a criminal problem and this fire of alleged militancy was fanned through unprofessional and criminal ways of conuct of Punjab Police itself, a large number of youths were forced into this fire, and it is during this Era that every Punjab Police personnel made millions by extorting money and made properties. It is admitted fact by the Punjab Police officers who are still part of organization that miltancy in Punjab was spread by police and later on curbed by the police by killing innocent youths in fake encounters but the real terrorists were allowed to be escaped with huge monies to foreign shores and it served the purpose of both. What benefitted from Punjab militancy was not any khalistan movement but criminal elements on both the sides, in Police as well in public but the real price has been paid by the common man and it has affected the three generations of some families and those families have been pushed into dark allays and their wounds will end only when those families becoming extinct themselves, they have been left to suffer in ignominy.Media hype created buzz word that Kanwar Pal's exemplary leadership inspired the trust of local pouplace and it turned against the terrorists , but that support was there already. There never was any support from the local population.In the two years before Golden Temple was attacked total of 200 people were killed.The two years that followed the attack on Golden Temple over 25,000 people were killed in violence. The movement had following composition.1. 10% committed for Sikh theological reovlution.2. 25% for economic reasons (Chandigarh, Water to Rajasthan, etc) through violence.3. 25% to settle personal vendatta against their enemies.4. 40% to make quick money through violence (robbing bank, kidnappings, etc)Now KPS gill only solved 3 and 4 from above. HOW. 1. He turned the political/economic issue of punjab a Hindu/Sikh issue (which it never was). 2. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. He got the women, children and old folks of the militants killed by police in civvies and himself acted as a brute criminal, emboldened by the silence of weak political leadership his police embarked upon the journey of killing spree of youth of punjab and extortion of money thus he beat the robbers like Ahmadshah abdali also and the notoreity went to his head to the extent that he lost all the decency of living in a civilised society and molested Ms.Rupen deol bajaj in full public view of bureaucrats, what else can be expected from a criminal mind.Extra judicial killings were so bad that even Sikh leaders like Maan (who resigned after golden temple attack from IPS post) was saved when a punjab police hindu gentleman refused to shoot at him in an extra judicial murder attempt. 100% punjabi families were affectedby gross human rights violations. Eventhough militants got the punishment but we areyet to see Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, (responsible for Delhi massacre and others hanged till death.While the real economic/political issue of infrastructure, Chandigarh for punjab, waters to rajasthan and haryana are still to be solved.

Truth about IPS

Isn't it correct that we remain on diatribe against politicians and they remain our favourite whipping boys. Whether it was Jessica case or Priyadarshini mattoo case,Nithari or Arushi case, Batla House or Mumbai massacre, Khairlanji or Ruchika every where, we have been failed by our elitist I.P.S.2.It is the prime duty of leadership to prepare its institution to deal and perform, in which IPS leadership has completely failed its police fraternity(Those who perform at Police station level).3.What is the status of 25 IPS officers who were placed under suspension for corruption in recruitment in UP.This very corruption lays the foundation of cases like Jessica and Ruchika.4.The intake system in police as IPS that we have in India, is no where in the world including UK,USA,NZ,Australia, these are all democracies.5.Isn't it fact that IPS system is remnant of colonial India and retrograde for democracy.6.IPS leadership did not work to improve its own police institution but has began on aretrigrade journey of militarisation of Indian police, being copy cat is easy and it is in our blood to be copy cats. example is begining of Formation signs on arm of police uniforms,Flags and star plates on cars is just an example.7.What attracts professionals like Doctors and Engineers to IPS is not the service of the Nation but the "power" that is felt more when misused and absued. "Money" in abundance that is illgotten and at the end we can conveniently blame everything on POLITICIANS.8.It has got everything to do with training at NPA, the value system that is being inculcated there has made its product vulnerable to petty temptations of wine,women and wealth and outcome is injustice with hapless people through instant justice of fake encounters for demonstrative performance to deviate the attention of public and further it leads to the scandals and criminalisation of entire police in India, because the product of IPS is uniformly distributed. May it be Kanwar Pal Gill or SPS Rathod or RK Sharma or millionaire Virk,or Vanjara, they are unfortunate to have been exposed.9.Which police rule or part of CrPC allows political interference in operational independence of police, quote me one ? It is big propaganda!10.Fact remains ! It is the people who perform and not the laws but in the form of people what we have is IPS. Doing the samething again and again and expecting different results is called insaity. and that's what we have been doing.Every time enacting new laws but the people will remain same , remnants of colonial era.

Immune Police service-Kanwar Pal Gill,SPS Rathod,Inc.

Hero as Molester
Subhash Gatade September 25, 2005
Tags: womens rights
Those were the days of the late eighties when Punjab was ’battling’ violent extremism of a different kind. Days when instances of gross human rights violations by the state were brushed aside as fabrications by vested interests. And riding high on
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the resolve of the powers that be to crush the recalcitrant elements was the then IG of Police Mr K.P.S. Gill, the last of the ’supercops’. Euologised by the media and adored by the chattering classes this ’no nonsense’ man was presented as the state’s answer to the ’terrorism sponsored from across the borders’.And it then seemed to be in the fitness of things that when supposedly the ’nation’s honour’ was at stake the Supercop’s misdemenaour vis a vis a fellow female senior IAS officer in a party were considered insignificant. And when she protested his molesting her she was told by her own colleagues that she was blowing the issue out of proportion. Ultimately when she decided to file a suit against the ’supercop’ for invading her right to bodily integrity, which every citizen of this country has under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, many of her seniors including the then Punjab governor Mr Siddharth Shankar Ray and even the first of the supercops Mr Ribiero advised her to ’forgive and forget’.All those wise men who had the audacity to counterpose nation’s honour to women’s honour stand exposed today albeit after a long gap of 17 years. The highest courts of the country has ruled in favour of the inviolable rights of the woman as woman granted by the constitution.The recent judgement by the Supreme Court which has finally convicted Mr Gill for ’outraging the modesty’ of Ms Rupan Deol Bajaj has finally vindicated what Ms Bajaj had been saying and maintaining all these years. She had always said that there cannot be hierarchies of honour before the constitution and it would be anti human even to think in terms of sacrificing woman’s right to a life of dignity and self respect at the altar of the nation.One still remembers the way in which Ms Bajaj was victimised for her standing up to the supercop. On the one hand the ’Supercop’ a darling of the media and the political class was winning laurels after laurels for ’breaking the backbone of militancy’ and on the other hand she was condemned to insignificatn postings supposedly for sullying the image of this ’Hero’.Persistence pays and slowly but not so silently she started winning legal battles against the Supercop. The first order by the sessions court came exactly ten years after that ’dinner party.’ The sessions court in Punjab sentenced Mr Gill to three months in prison.( 1998). The reaction from a section of the media was ferocious. Chandan Mitra, editor of ’The Pioneer’ wrote a fiery front page editorial wherein he went out of his ways to defend Mr Gill when the session courts had delivered its judgement. He castigated all those people who were fighting for women’s dignity when the ’nation’s dignity itself was at stake’. Ofcourse Mr Chandan Mitra was not alone in holding such views.He was in good company with the other watchdogs of democracy and upholders of freedom of expression at least on this issue.’Long years of wait, minus long years of suffering equals nothing.’ Thus went a poem which narrated the hopes, aspirations, struggles of a woman which finds herself in a crisis situation. The smile on Ms Rupan Deol Bajaj’s face the other day after hearing the judgement of the SC rather conveyed the same feeling. And remaining true to the spirit of her struggle she has donated the fine of 2 Lakh to a woman’s organisation so that women in similar circumstances at least get some help. The court has ordered Mr Gill to pay this fine to Ms Bajaj.Definitely this is a moment of celebration for all of us . It is a victory of the indomitable spirit of Ms Rupan Deol Bajaj who refused to get cowed down by the aweinspiring Supercop. One can say without any exaggeration that it is significant step forward for the women’s movement also which has consistently fought for violence against women in all its forms. But the saga of struggle of Ms Rupan is also a moment of reflection. -The first and foremost point which needs to be addressed is the longish wait for justice in any such case of sexual harassment / assaults. Despite the molestation occuring in full public view in this case, it took seventeen long years for the courts to decide. Counsellors or social activists come across cases where legal battles continue in cases of rapes of children till the victim reaches adulthood. Judiciary, executive as well as the legislature which has enough dominance of patriarchal notions and values over its functioning have refused to take a serious note of this phenomenon where the victim has to undergo trauma again and again with every hearing.- In fact, it has been a longstanding demand of the women’s movement that all cases of sexual harassment or gender related violence be expedited. It has been proposed that special courts be formed at various levels. Looking at the special nature of this crime where the victim of such sexual violence is left to herself to bear the ’stigma’, activists have consistently maintained that steps be taken to change the situation.But despite fifty five years of Indias’ ushering into a Republic one does not see that the powers that be are serious about it. - A related issue is the cavalier manner in which first information reports are filed by the police in all such cases and the sloppy investigation which takes place. The judiciary has time and again castigated the police for its partial investigations and its biased role which has allowed many a accused to escape scotfree despite clinching evidence against them. Looking at the overall picture one very well understands why the actual rate of conviction is less that two percent. Of course, of late one does notice some improvements on this front.In a few recent cases the constant supervision of the media coupled with the people’s pressure has facilitated early resolution of acts of violence against women.The recent case from Jodhpur can be said to break new grounds as far as similar cases are concerned. In fact in this case where a foreign tourist was sexually assaulted by two persons,the verdict was delivered within a span of less than a month. But it can be said to be an irony of sorts that in all these cases the class and caste background of the victim/ perpetrator has been a defining feature. While the Rajasthan court was efficient enough to deliver justice in case of the foreigner, it has been more than thirteen years that the case of the rape of Bhanwari Devi, a grassroot worker from the women’s development Programme’ is languishing in courts there. The session courts had quashed her petition quoting ’the great Indian family tradition’ because two of her perpetrators were related to each other. Bhanwari Devi has appealed to the High court to seek justice but the court has yet to find time to deliberate on the case. Similar is the issue in case of the sexual assault on Ruchika which ultimately led to her suicide which involved a senior police officer from Haryana. It has been alleged that this man Rathod, who retired last year as DIG of Haryana, had sexually assaulted Ruchika in the early 90s. When Ruchika tried to raise the case, this man helped lodge false cases of cycle thefts against her younger brother which led him to spend quite a few days in prison. Devastated by the whole incident Ruchika committed suicide. Such is the clout of this officer despite his retirement that till date not even an FIR has been lodged against him. A legal battle is going on in the courts which involves parents of Ruchika’s friend who have been witness to the trauma through which she went all those years. It has been their firm resolve that the rapist be nabbed as early as possible. The latest addition to the long list of police personnel whose sexual inneunedos have made headlines is the DIG of Ranchi Mr Natarajan who was caught on the secret camera while seeking sexual favours from a complainant tribal woman.One still remembers the famous observation made by Justice A.N. Mulla of the Allahabad highcourt in the late fifties where he had termed Indian police as an ’Organised goonda force’. Looking at the plethora of cases which have come up recently where one has found the involvement of police personnel in cases of harassing / molesting / raping women it would not be out of place to imagine what would have been Justice Mulla’s reaction to it. He would have been forthright enough to call it a ’gang of molesters’.Is not it time for a reality check for the police ?