The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you to seek your intervention into the case of a human rights defender wrongly detained on fabricated charges by the police in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, India.
Gopen Sharma has been held in prison since February 8 on frivolous and fabricated charges. His repeated bail applications have been rejected without cause. His advocate has pointed to many deficiencies in the prosecution case, including that the public prosecutor has failed to show the court any document to prove that the accused took 1900 rupees (USD 43) some three years ago under false pretences; that the details of the arrest, including time and date, were fabricated; the procedure of arrest was illegal; and, that the accused was entitled to bail after almost 20 days of imprisonment as the investigation of the case has been almost completed and his wife has submitted documentary evidence of her ill health in support of the application for bail.
The AHRC is of the opinion that Gopen is being victimized due to his work against police torture and extrajudicial killings by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the area. He has constantly submitted petitions on behalf of victims of human rights violations to various government authorities, including the National Human Rights Commission of India and the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission. In fact, on the day of his arrest, Gopen was visiting the Kaharpara border to get updated information about one murder case allegedly committed by the BSF 136 Battalion on 1 June 2006. The AHRC has issued an urgent appeal on this case based on his earlier report and communicated with local authorities and the relevant United Nations agencies to seek intervention into that case. He has also been working as a District Human Rights Monitor for the National Project on Preventing Torture in India, which is supported by the European Union.
The AHRC is well aware that in West Bengal the lower judiciary is fully dependant on the police, even for the maintaining of court records, and recording of the orders of magistrates. In another case concerning the same person and police station, it can be shown that the police themselves wrote at least part of the judicial order (Raninagar PS Case 21/2007). Therefore, in many cases judicial magistrates are not capable of discharging their judicial duties independently. The AHRC is gravely concerned that the cause of the unreasonable rejections of the bail applications made to the court by Gopen Sharma is this strong link between the police and the lower court: specifically, that the police are using the court to keep the accused in prison and thereby both intimidate him and prevent him from carrying out his work as a human rights monitor.
The AHRC is aware that the Kolkata High Court has administrative authority over its subordinate courts as per section 227 of the Constitution of India, and under section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code it has special powers regarding applications of bail. The court may direct that any person accused of an offence being held in custody may be released on bail, and any condition imposed by a subordinate court when releasing any person on bail can set aside or modified on its order.
Accordingly, we request that you intervene into this case and secure the release from detention and malicious pursuit through the courts of Gopen Sharma under the consideration of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Lalbagh, Murshidabad. Please see that he is freed and the fabricated charges against him withdrawn. Furthermore, please ensure that those persons who have deliberately misused the law for their own ends are held to account.
We look forward to your immediate and effective action in defence of both the rule of law and human rights in West Bengal and India.
Yours sincerely
Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
