INDIA: West Bengal police beat man to death then threaten local population 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has very disturbing news from local partner organization Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) that the police in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal, beat a man to death during routine inquiries on 18 September 2005. According to the reports, since the man was killed, the police and local authorities have acted to cover up the murder and obstruct any proper inquiry from taking place. They also treated the body of the deceased with contempt, and left it for hours outside the police station like a bag of rubbish.

This is the latest in a series of worsening attacks against people in Jalangi in the lead up to a public tribunal on starvation in the area that is being convened by MASUM in cooperation with the AHRC on September 23 and 24. Only a few days ago the AHRC reported on the latest attack on local human rights defender Gopen Sharma (UA-161-2005). It has also recently noted that starvation deaths are continuing unabated in the locality despite government commitments to include affected persons on welfare schemes (HU-07-2005).

We ask you to write to the relevant government authorities expressing outrage at the latest attack that has caused this needless death, and also at the general atmosphere of terror that is being incited among the local population by the police and other authorities.

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

Name of the victim: Chheparuddin Mondal, 35-years-old, son of Sattar Mondal
Address: Farazipara village, Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal
Date of incident: 18 September 2005 at about 8:45pm
Place of incident: Victim’s house
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Subir Pal, Officer-in-charge, Jalangi police station
2. Bidhan Bitan, Circle Inspector, Domkal
3. Snehashish Dirghangi, Sub Divisional Police Officer, Domkal
4. Murshidabad District police contingent

On 18 September 2005 a Murshidabad District police contingent came to the house of 35-year-old Chheparuddin Mondal in Farazipara village, Jalangi, in connection with the arrest of his cousin. That man, Lavlo Mondal, son of Absad Mondal, is a resident of Bangladesh who was arrested by Border Security Force personnel after entering India illegally. He was handed to the Jalangi police, and under interrogation told the police that he was on his way to Farazipara when arrested. After that the police, led by the Officer in Charge of Jalangi police station, the Circle Inspector Bitan Pradhan and Sub Divisional Police Officer Snehashish Dirghangi went to the village

At the house of Chheparuddin Mondal the police began asking questions about which he knew nothing, was unable to reply, and resented the inquiries. The police then allegedly began assaulting the man with sticks, punches, kicks and using the butts of their rifles. Mondal fell to the ground unconscious and lay there in a pool of blood. The assault was witnessed by other persons, including the wife (Ferdousa) and children (Kajal and Rupa) of the victim together with other villagers. A short while later the police left.

The villagers found that they could not rouse the victim and went to complain that he had been killed at Jalangi police station the same night. However, the police allegedly refused to lodge the case and threatened the wife of Chheparuddin and accompanying villagers that the same thing would happen to them if they dared to lodge a complaint.

With intervention from local rights group MASUM the matter obtained outside attention and the following morning, September 19, the police took a written complaint from the wife of the deceased, but without completing the formalities of putting a seal and signature. After that some officers went to the site of the death, but instead of conducting a proper investigation they allegedly threatened the family to bury the body and not take the matter to higher authorities or they would also learn fatal lessons.

Finally, the police took the body from the village around 10-11am, as there was no doctor in the village with competent authority to issue a death certificate. However, latest reports indicate that they did not treat the body properly. Instead, it was left outside the Jalangi police station in a cycle-van-rickshaw, covered in plastic. No doctor was called to check whether the body was dead or alive; however, in the afternoon it was taken away and then returned to the family in the evening. Whatever was done to the body in that period, MASUM has indicated that it is quite impossible that a proper postmortem can have been conducted because the nearest hospital with necessary facilities is a two-hour drive away.

Latest indications are also that the local authorities are acting fast to cover up the matter by paying off the family. As one in the family is a member of the village council for the ruling party in the state, at around 2:30pm on September 19 the local Member of the Legislative Assembly Yunus Sarkar came to negotiate with the Jalangi police and reach a settlement whereby they pay some money to the family to silence the matter.

Meanwhile, no magistrate was deployed to enquire into the matter and make an inquest report as is required under section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code where a death occurs in custody.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The AHRC has in recent months written extensively on the efforts of MASUM and other human rights defenders in Murshidabad who are working to raise awareness about the conditions of starvation and utter degradation experienced by villagers there. Not only has the authorities’ response been characterized by inaction, but increasingly the police are operating a reign of terror over the district in attempts to quell public disquiet and demonstrate that they will without compromise resort to violence and killing. While the latest death was not directly linked to the attacks on human rights defenders like Gopen Sharma (UA-161-2005) and the ongoing starvation in the region (HU-07-2005), it is undeniably part of this overall trend.

It is particularly disturbing for both MASUM and the AHRC that this killing comes just a few days before a jointly-organized people’s tribunal on starvation and government inaction in the district, which is due to be held this September 23 and 24, about which the local authorities have been fully informed. The worsening attacks appear to be aimed at intimidating the local populace against speaking out during the course of the tribunal’s hearings in the vicinity.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister and Minister in Charge of Home (Police) Department, Government of West Bengal seeking his urgent intervention into this case, and seeking assurances that no further attacks of this nature will take place in Jalangi. Please send copies of that letter to the appropriate authorities provided below.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER