INDIA: A man from Bihar crippled after 7-year ordeal under the Police Authority of Kerala

Dear friends,

The AHRC has received information from Nervazhi, a local human rights organisation, regarding the brutal torture done under the police custody of various police stations in Kerala. The man tortured is Mr. Martim P.A. who was tortured in a way that has crippled him. A series of unfortunate events occurred in the life of Martim, and it all began in the year 2008 at Thrikakkara Police Station. In that Station, the police not just once, but countless times, brutally tortured Martim holding him as a suspect of virtually every theft in the District.

Over the years, Martim has been imprisoned in various jails, and was finally serving time in Viyoor Central Jail from the year 2010. During his time in prison, he became paralyzed and was taken to Thrissur District Hospital in the year 2012.

It is known that Martim is not financially equipped to hire a lawyer for his defence, but nobody bothered to make him aware him about his right to counsel, as per the Indian Constitution. As a result, his case has not been put to trial and he has not been released.

This is an account of common man. After all these years of injustice, his story was finally documented by Nervazhi at Thrissur District Hospital, where he lays bedridden and crippled for life. The doctor at the hospital has pronounced his final verdict that Martim suffers from Brain Tuberculosis due to the physical torture he underwent all these years and, even if he is cured from tuberculosis in his brain, he will remain bedridden forever.

On the 27th April 2015, Nervazhi filed a complaint through their lawyers before the State Human Rights Commission, requesting the Commission to intervene in this case. It has been reported that more than 30 million cases are pending in the Indian courts and justice is always delayed. How can common persons like Mr Martim survive in this system, which ignores the principles of democracy and the rule of law, and allows impunity for acts of torture?

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr. Martim P.A. is a 30-year-old man from Bihar. Martim arrived in Ernakulam District of Kerala in the year 1995, when he was only 10 years old. As he is from Bihar, he could not speak the local language and found it very difficult to survive and he had to beg to find means to feed himself.

Subsequently, Martim was rescued and handed over to the protection and care of the Divya Balaka Retreat Centre in Malayanthuruthu. Martim remained there until 2003 and later started earning a livelihood, doing odd jobs. In 2008, he decided to go to another Retreat Centre, called Rishi Brothers. Martim claims that he was seeking directions to this Retreat Centre and went to a nearby house for help. The house belonged to an ex-judge Ms. Sujatha. Suspecting that Martim had approached the house with an intention to break into the house, neighbours around the house caught Martim and handed him over to Thrikakara Police Station.

The police brutally tortured Martim at the Station, accusing him of having attempted burglary; he was charged in a case and was produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate in Aluwa. He was not allowed to avail his right to counsel as per the Indian Constitution. Eventually, Martim, without proper defence and unable to gain bail, was convicted by the court to one year imprisonment.

Martim was released from custody once he finished serving his term. However, the police did not leave him even them. The police included his name in a list of regular suspects to be “investigated” whenever or wherever a theft is reported. The police every now and then began to take Martim into custody, torture him, and force him to confess to crimes he did not commit. Fed-up with being taken into custody repeatedly, and unable to bear constant torture, Martim decided to seek refuge in the Retreat Centre at Chittur in the year 2009.

While he was in this Retreat Centre, Martim admitted that he had stolen a mobile telephone. Regretting that he has committed a theft, he confessed and returned the phone to the priest in the Retreat Centre. The priest however did not forgive Martim following his confession or feel responsible enough to help Martim set his life in the right track.

The priest handed Martim over to Cheranaloor Police station, where the Police registered a case against Martim and produced Martim before the Ernakalum Judicial First Class Magistrate. Martim was remanded into custody first at Ernakulam Sub-Jail. Later he was transferred to Kakanad District Jail. The police took Martim to different police stations in the District, as part of the investigation in which Martim was an accused. In 2010, the authorities, however, shifted Martim to Viyoor Central Jail, as there was nobody to help release Martim on bail.

In 2012, whiIe Martim was still at Viyoor Central Jail his body, below the waist, became paralysed. Since then, Martim has been criticially and chronically sick and has been receiving treatment at the Thrissur District Hospital. Dr. Mithoon of Thrissur District Hospital, who is treating Martim, diagnosed Martim with brain tuberculosis as a result of severe torture suffered. The doctors have stated that even if the TB in Martim’s brain is cured, he will not be able to walk anymore and he will be bedridden forever.

Martim cannot move around freely or go to the court by himself and arrange for bail. Therefore, the case registered against Martim has not yet been brought to trial for several years; the Judiciary is not making any effort to adjudicate the case. As the trial is delayed, Martim remains in custody way beyond the time that he might have spent in prison convicted for an offence of theft.

In 27 April 2015, Nervazhi, a local human rights organisation, having learned about Martim’s case, filed a complaint through its lawyer before the State Human Rights Commission, requesting that the Commission intervene in this case.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Torture and deadly force at local police stations in India is common practice. A little more than a decade after the Indian Parliament established the National Human Rights Commission to deal with such abuses, police torture continues without relent, something even the Supreme Court of India concurs with. According to the latest available government data, there were 1,307 reported deaths in police and judicial custody in India in 2002. The police often operate in a climate of impunity, where torture is seen as routine police behaviour – from extracting confessions from small pickpockets to neutering political suspects. The laws governing police functions were framed during British colonial rule, in 1861, a time when the police was created to be an oppressive force designed to keep the local Indian population under control.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the authorities listed below, asking them to adjudicate the case of Mr. Martim P.A. as early as possible, based on fact, not preconceived. Given Martim’s health condition, allegations of torture should be investigated and a Special Investigation Team should be appointed by the State Human Rights Commission to look into the matter to ensure there is no fabrication of events or data. The concerned police personnel should be sacked and punished. The State should take the responsibility of providing all the medical treatments required for Martim to recover his health as far as possible. The State should rehabilitate, counsel, and provide employment opportunities as well. Lastly, if Martim will remain a cripple, the State should provide Martim with maintenance allowance for his survival.

The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and on the Human Rights of Migrants, and the Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary Arrest and Detention calling for their intervention into this matter.

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