Chennai: Meenakshi Ganguly, Director, South Asia, Human Rights Watch, said human rights activists are under threat from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government. Addressing a meeting in Chennai on Monday, she said there has been a crackdown on the civil society across the country.
Rights activists are being attacked and they were termed as anti-nationals and five-star activists. These attacks and narratives were bad and highly unfortunate.
Meenakshi said the same Prime Minister goes abroad saying India is a democracy and you must come and invest in the country.
The strongest part of the democracy is media and NGOs. Lawyers in Chattisgarh were bullied by mobs, sedition charge slapped against Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the JNU Students’ Union, licenses of a large number of NGOs were revoked and FCRA denied. Such unfortunate incidents would affect the transparency and smooth functioning of democracy. Stating that the NGOs were not acting against the government, she said that, in fact, they support the government machinery.
She demanded that the Central Government ratify United Nations Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman treatment and incorporate the provisions of the domestic law. The government must also revise IPC to include torture as a criminal offence.
Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch, Madurai, said “police do not follow section 41-a, 41-b, 41-c and 41-d of CrPc during the arrest of a suspect.
Police often bypass arrest procedures and torture suspects in custody to death. At least 591 people died in police custody between 2010 and 2015 in India according to official data”.
‘Meen Kolambu’ Karthik of Chinthadripet has died in the custody of the Kannagi Nagar police in September this year. Senthil Kumar and Karthik were two among several persons who died in custody. Tipaghne said both police and judicial officials must be held responsible for custodial torture. The authorities have stalled reforms needed to build a more rights-respecting police force.
Jayshree Bajoria of Human Rights Watch said while police claim the deaths in custody as suicide, illness and natural causes, the victims’ family members allege deaths were a result of torture. We have sufficient laws with regard to arrest, detention and prosecution, but often theses laws were not followed, she said. These cases were pending in the courts for several years.
After the death/injuries of the suspect in police custody, other police officials, who were not involved in the incident, also begin supporting the accused cops.
She said according to a government data, in 67 of 97 deaths in custody, police either failed to produce the suspect before a magistrate within 24 hours or the suspect died within 24 hours of being arrested. The cops have their own code of police procedure and they do not follow the Code of Criminal Procedure, she added.
Former DGP, Tamil Nadu Dr K. R. Shyamsundar, said awareness must be raised among the constables and other police officials on rights of citizens. The authorities must take effective steps in providing effective free legal aid to suspect soon after the arrest. Among others, family members of custodial torture victims, including Saraswathi and Sasikumar attended the meeting.
The delegates released a report on “Bound by Brotherhood - India’s failure to End Killings in Police Custody”. The report examines police disregard for arrest regulations, custodial deaths from torture, and immunity for those responsible. It also contains detailed investigations conducted in 17 custodial deaths occurring between 2009 and 2015, including more than 70 interviews with victims’ family members, witnesses, justice experts, and police officials. In each of the 17 cases, the police had not followed proper arrest procedures, making the suspects more vulnerable to abuse.
