INDIA: Police inaction in alleged assault and death threat against a human rights activist

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) based in Uttar Pradesh, India, regarding an alleged assault and death threat against a human rights activist. It is alleged that a few men associated with the village-head of Pindra village under Phulpur police station in Varanasi district assaulted Mr. Santhosh Kumar Patel, a human rights activist associated with PVCHR, while he was trying to get information regarding the implementation of government schemes in the village.   

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information received, Mr. Santhosh Kumar Patel, a human rights activist associated with the PVCHR, has been working in different villages of Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh state, India. His work was focused to secure basic amenities to the marginalised communities and against corruption and caste based discrimination.

On 22 July 2006, Mr. Santhosh filed an application with the local authority demanding some information regarding the implementation of government welfare schemes in Pindra village in Varanasi district using the provisions of the Right to Information Act. This was to expose the corruption in implementing these schemes. The village-head of Pindra village who came to know about this, apprehending that his corruption will be exposed, has been looking for Mr. Santhosh to compel him from gathering the information.

On 2 February 2007 at about 8:45 am when Mr. Santhosh was returning from Pindra market, the younger brother of the village-head Mr. Sijjan Yadav along with his friend Mr. Raju Yadav riding on a motor bike intercepted Mr. Santosh near Surya Narayan Inter College and stopped him. The two men abused him using filthy language and started to beat him. When Mr. Santhosh resisted, one of the two men produced a pistol and thrusting it on Mr. Santhosh’s chest threatened him to withdraw the application he had filed or else prepare to die. Meanwhile, Mr. Ajeet Patel came out of his house and appeared in the place. He recognized Mr. Santosh and then allegedly tried to provoke Mr. Sijjan and Mr. Raju to kill Mr. Santosh by saying that he was advocating for rights in the favour of Chamars, Musahars and other socially marginalized communities and organising them against the rich and upper caste in the area.

After the incident Mr. Santhosh went to the Phulpur police station to lodge his complaint against the perpetrators. However, the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Phulpur police station refused to register a case. Under Indian law, threatening a person with death and assaulting is a serious crime. Then Mr. Santhosh returned to his village and informed other villagers about the incident and the police attitude towards the incident. He again went to the police station along with the villagers to register his complaint. In spite of this, the local police initially resisted registering the case, but three hours later they registered the complaint under sections 323 , 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code against the perpetrators. But till today no action has been taken against the alleged perpetrators. The name and address of the perpetrators were mentioned in the complaint. However, the police are refusing to arrest them.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

In India it is common that many poor people do not dare to go to police station to lodge their complaints even in a serious offence. This is because those who dare to go to a police station are threatened and intimidated by the police. Complainants, if poor often find them charged with crimes they have not committed if they insist to register a case.

This is what happened in the recent incident of serial murder of children in Noida, Delhi, where more than 30 children were found murdered. In this case too, parents from poor families when they found their children missing tried lodging complaints at the local police station. The local police refused to register a case of man missing. Those parents who insisted that their complaints be registered were threatened by the local police that they would be implicated in crimes for selling their children. This went on for about two years and finally when the remains of a child was found from the drain adjacent to a house, there was a huge protest and later it was found that more than 30 children who went missing in two years period were murdered. This case is currently under investigation. The parents who lost their children were all from poor families living in the neighboring slum.

Death threat is a common phenomenon in Uttar Pradesh if one dares to work on issues of the lower caste and the poor. The AHRC in the past had brought to your notice the case of Dr. Lenin Raghuvansi who was threatened to death for working in Belwa village of Varansi district in Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Lenin is the Secretary of the PVCHR. For further details please see UA-138-2005 and UP-95-2005. As for Santhosh, this is not the first time he was threatened for working on issues of caste and untouchability.  On 11 May 2006 Santhosh was arrested and detained by the District Magistrate Mr. Rajeev Agarwal for raising the concerns of the marginalised people. For further details please see UA-156-2006 and UP-122-2006.

Even the State Human Rights Commission in Uttar Pradesh is unwilling to help human rights activists. In the earlier case where the District Magistrate ordered the illegal arrest and detention of Santhosh, the attempt by the State Human Rights Commission was to silence the activist by compromising the case out of court. For further details please see UP-209-2006.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and demand proper investigation and the immediate arrest of the alleged perpetrators. Protection to human rights activists must be guaranteed and police officers who initially failed to register a case and now desisting investigating the case and arresting the perpetrators must be removed from service and their conduct inquired into. The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the Ms. Hina Jilani, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for human rights defenders.

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