INDIA: Stop state-led hounding of Bela Bhatia, other human rights defenders

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about continuing attacks on Human Rights Defenders in Chhattisgarh, India. In the most recent case, around 30 goons attacked Bela Bhatia, an internationally renowned activist and researcher, in her home in Bastar and threatened her to leave the area immediately. They left only after forcing Ms. Bhatia and her landlord to write a note promising to leave within 24 hours. Ironically, the attack came within a couple of days of visit by a team of National Human Rights Commission whom Ms. Bhatia is helping to investigate a case of alleged rape of Adivasi women by state security forces.

CASE NARRATIVE:

On Monday, 23 January 2017, around 30 men barged into Ms. Bela Bhatia’s home in Parpa village, 8 km south of Jagdalpur, in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The men threatened her to leave the area immediately and warned her that they will burn her house down and kill her dog if she fails to do that. They also threatened her landlady of dire consequences if she did not throw Ms. Bhatia out of the house. The attackers remained unfazed even after Ms. Bhatia called District Magistrate Amit Kataria seeking help.

Though the Police did reach her house about half an hour after the call, it did nothing to control the goons. Faced with such circumstances, Ms. Bhatia and her landlady were forced to accept the diktat and asked for a little time. The attackers agreed to that on the condition of her writing a declaration saying she would leave within 24 hours, that too in the presence of the police personnel. The act leaves no doubts about the complicity of police in the attack and allowing the goons to violate the fundamental right of her’s ‘to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India’- guaranteed by the Article 19 (e) of the constitution of India. Further, the attack took place in the presence of village Sarpanch, who too did nothing to stop the goons.

Ironically, the attack on Ms. Bhatia seems to be a direct fallout of her relentless struggle to get justice for Adivasi women allegedly raped by the state security forces. The immediate provocation seems to have come from Ms. Bhatia accompanying the NHRC team on January 19 and 20. She had accompanied the 5 member team to on its visit of Peddagelur and Bellamnendra villages in nearby Bijapur district to record the statements of the 14 women who had filed cases of rape and sexual assault against the security forces in the past two years. This must have irked the state administration as the NHRC had only recently admitted to having found prima facie evidence of the security personnel of state government of Chhattisgarh having raped and sexually and physically assaulted at least 16 women. The NHRC had also vowed to investigate other such cases and ordered the government of Chhattisgarh to invoke Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in all the cases when the victims belong to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.

Yet, the attacks on Bela Bhatia and other human rights defenders are nothing new in the state caught in an almost civil war like situation between state security agencies and armed Maoist rebels. Ms. Bhatia herself had been targeted several times before- ever since she first helped Adivasi women in registering three First Information Reports (F.I.R.) against security personnel for gang rape and sexual assaults starting in November 2015. The F.I.Rs were reportedly the first one filed under the new and far sterner anti-rape law that came after the infamous 16 December 2012 gang rape in Delhi through the Criminal Law Amendment Act (2013).

The local, state supported vigilante groups are hounding Ms. Bhatia ever since, with apparent tacit support of the authorities. They have organized several protests against her, have pressurized and threatened her landlords to throw her out, ran vilifying campaigns terming her a Maoist supporter and so on even as she has been assisting the NHRC, a statutory body.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Serious violations of the human rights of the people of Chhattisgarh, a state caught amidst armed struggle between outlawed Maoist rebels and state security agencies, are routine. So are the state supported attacks on Human Rights Defenders trying to help the unarmed, civilian population of the state caught in the crossfire. The state security forces have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, committing rapes and grievous sexual assaults, torturing civil society activists and so on with impunity.

They have also been found guilty of running private militia groups- later disbanded by the Supreme Court of India with a serious reprimand to the state government. However, things do not seem to have changed much on the ground with the state police openly, and illegally hounding the human rights defenders. They have also let the vigilantes attack the activists and even journalist and chasing them out of the state. For instance, the vigilantes forced Malini Subramanium, a journalist reporting on the atrocities out of the state last year. They then did the same with lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal who were helping the Adivasis with legal assistance under the aegis of Jagdalpur Legal Aid group.

The culture of impunity runs so deep in the state that when the personnel of Chhattisgarh Police were indicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for burning down “160 houses in Tadmetla village” in March 201, they burnt down the effigies of human rights defenders who have fought hard to expose the issue. They have also repeatedly fabricated cases- including those of murders- against activists to threaten them into submission.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the following authorities calling on them to arrest the goons who threatened Ms. Bela Bhatia and prosecute them, provide security to her and other human rights defenders in the state, and take action against the personnel of security forces for dereliction of duty. You may also demand speedy investigation into all the cases of atrocities against the state security forces and punishment for those found guilty.

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples for their intervention into this matter.

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