INDIA: Intoxicated police officers assault 12 families in Varanasi

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Savitribhai Phule Women’s Association and the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) about an incident in which intoxicated police officers assaulted the members of 12 families in Varanasi. It is reported that the police officers who attacked the families at night did not spare the old, pregnant women or the children. 

CASE DETAILS: 

On 29 January, at about 1:30am about 50 police officers from the Cantonment Police Station of Varanasi district arrived at Hukulganj (Dharkar Ghetto). The officers arrived in six vehicles. Hukulganj is within the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Police Station. Hukulganj is a place by the side of the public road in Varanasi. 12 families from the Dhakar community live there in huts. 

As soon as the officers arrived, they entered the huts and started assaulting the residents. The officers spared none. Men, women, children and even pregnant women were not spared. While assaulting the people, the officers were shouting at them to vacate the place as soon as possible. 

The incident in the words of a victim, Mrs. Vimala, is reproduced below: 

My name is Vimla. I am about 40 years old. I am a resident of Hukulganj (Dharkar ghetto), under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Police Station in Varanasi district. I am living in a small hut with my family. My family includes my husband, three sons, a daughter, daughter-in-law, and a grandson. All of us are engaged in making and selling household items from bamboo. 

Like my family, other 45 persons live in 12 huts in this place. We are staying here since several generations. We are all engaged in the same profession. 

On 29 January at about 01.30 am about 50 police officers, or probably slightly more, arrived near our huts in six police vehicles. Once the officers arrived, they started assaulting us with sticks. They assaulted our children, women, old persons and those who were sleeping. While beating us they were also threatening us that we should vacate the place before the morning. They said, otherwise they would ruin the huts by throwing explosives. 

The officers were drunk and their intention was not good. They misbehaved with the women. They tried to sexually abuse the women and when the women objected, they brutally beat them up. A Police Sub-Inspector entered my hut, dragged me by holding my legs, and fixed a gun at my mouth, when I tried to lean on my bed. He threatened and yelled at me to run away. 

When I asked him the reason, he beat me on my arm and dragged me outside from my hut. I am suffering from intolerable pain from the assault. We all were perplexed and terrorised with the sudden attack on our community and the incident created a chaotic scene. 

The officers even did not spare the old persons. The officers assaulted a 70-year-old woman named Lachi with a stick. Then they assaulted Rekha, a pregnant mother, who is in the advanced stage of her pregnancy. 

Many persons were injured in the incident. They destroyed our household articles and destroyed the utensils. The officers destroyed the huts of eleven families. By then, some persons from the neighbouring communities had gathered there. Before the officers left, they set on fire the huts belonging to four families. Our household and livelihood articles were burned. We suffered great loss. 

After the incident, we informed the District Magistrate of Varanasi about the incident. The information was sent by local speed post. A complaint was also given to the Additional District Magistrate in person. In both complaints we requested the officers to provide medical treatment and to arrange for a medico-legal examination of the injured. But our request is ignored till now. The officers have also threatened us to remain silent about the incident.

A video of the incident is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzGZoRQbhbk&feature=email.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

The Dharkar families have been living by the side of the road since the past four generations. They earn their livelihood by making baskets and other household articles from bamboo. Before moving to the current location in Hukulganj, these families were residing at Nazul Land number 33 in Varanasi. 

‘Nazul Land’ is government or municipality land leased to private individuals or to entities like schools by a municipal authority for non-agricultural purposes. Prior to the allotment of the land, the municipality has to satisfy that the land is barren and that no agricultural activity is possible on it. Once the lessee does not require the possession of the land, or if the leasor decides to terminate the lease, the land has to be returned to the leasor. Due to wide-spread corruption, often the lessee illegally converts or uses the land for illegal purposes, including resale for profit with the knowledge of the leasor. 

In old municipalities like Varanasi, where government land were once under the Zamindari system (old Indian feudal practice legalised by the British and later abolished by the government by an Act of the Parliament) large extents of lands that were taken over by the municipalities were handed over to individuals, exploiting the laws relating to Nazul Lands. Land number 33, where the Dharkar families were previously staying was also was leased out in similar circumstances to private individuals. 

The Zamindari system, (feudal system of land holding acquired by birth right) was abolished by the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, a law that came into operation in the state in 1951. A subsequent amendment that was made to this law incorporated Section 122 (b) (4) (f) to ensure that Nazul Lands not under the possession of the members of the Scheduled Caste (SC) or the Scheduled Tribe (ST) will be repossessed by the government to be allotted to the members of the SC or ST communities. 

A person named Prakash Singh Patel, resident of Bari Bazar, Varanasi had persuaded the Dharkar families to vacate from Nazul Land number 33 on the pretext that he would construct a boundary wall to secure the place for the safety of Dharkar families. Believing Patel, the Dharkar vacated the land. But after the construction of the wall, Patel denied to hand over possession of the land to the Dharkar families. He chased them away from the land. It is since then; the Dharkar families started living at Hukulganj by the side of the road. 

The victims had filed two petitions with the authorities seeking assistance. The first petition was filed on 13 January to the District Magistrate of Varanasi, seeking his approval to allot houses to the Dharkar under the Kanshi Ram Shehri Gharib Awas Yojna, a state government scheme that envisages allotting 100,000 free houses each year to the poor. The second petition was filed on 27 January at the office of the Additional District Magistrate, requiring the officer to repossess Nazul Land number 33 from Patel and allot it to the Dharkar. Both petitions were not acted upon. 

It is in this context that the assault upon the Dharkar community assumes relevance, in addition to the fact that illegal and arbitrary force was used upon the families by the police. It is suspected that Patel, who found that his illegal possession of Nazul Land number 33 could be in jeopardy due to the petitions submitted by the Dharkar families, Patel bribed the police officers to threaten the Dharkar to vacate the place from where they are staying. Patel was of the expectation that Dharkar being the members of the lower caste and destitute, with no one to take up their cause, would move to some other place, so that they would no more claim their legal right over Nazul Land number 33, which he is planning to illegally profit from. 

Varanasi is a city in India, like many other similar cities, where the destitute and the poor live in temporary sheds and huts in open areas by the side of the roads, under bridges and in any available place. The police officers never care to interfere with the life of these people unless there has been some pressure from higher authorities or someone has bribed them. It is equally important to note here that no other similar settlements were disturbed by the police on 29 January, or any day prior to this date or after. It is also an important point to be noted that the police action was just an hour past mid night. 

A police force otherwise reluctant even to write down a complaint if a person visits the police station, to disturb a selected neighborhood, threatening, assaulting and abusing the inhabitants in the huts and further asking them to vacate the place within dawn, implies to anyone who knows the manner in which the police operate in India, that the police were acting at the behest of Patel. However, the police and Patel underestimated the fact that Dharkar community also, however poor they might be, have now a means to speak out. 

Under the Indian law, a police officer do not have a legal right to enter a house, irrespective of the fact, whether it is a hut or a mansion, in public or private place, unless they have specific authority under a warrant. Needles to say, abuse of women and children and assaulting persons are not sanctioned any law in India. Instead such acts are crimes punishable under appropriate laws in the country. 

On 8 January, as a result of several attempts by the local human rights groups, a clerk from the office of the Circle Inspector of Police visited the place. The clerk insisted that the statements of the injured have to be recorded without the presence of human rights activists. The victims refused and the clerk returned, threatening that he would record that they do not have any complaints. This is also a process unheard of in law. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, if a statement regarding a crime has to be recorded, it has to be taken down by a police officer and a copy of the statement be handed over to the informant. 

Additionally, the crime of destruction of huts, abuse and assault of the Dharkar families is an offense under the Section 3 of the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Under Rule 7 (1) of the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, an officer below the rank of the Deputy Superintendent of Police do not have authority to investigate a crime that is alleged to have committed under the Act. According to Section 17 (1) of the Act, the District Magistrate has a mandatory responsibility to hold an enquiry upon the incident and order investigation about the incident. Failing to do so, would be a crime under the Act. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please write letters to the authorities listed below, urging them to take immediate steps to provide protection to the families. The incident must be investigated by a senior police officer and a crime must be registered against the officers involved in the incident. Additionally, it must also be ensured that appropriate land is allotted to the Dharkar families by the state government. 

The AHRC has also written letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance calling for an intervention in this case.

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