Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner organization MASUM in West Bengal, India regarding the alleged extra-judicial killing of a villager named Akhil Mondal by the Border Security Force personnel on 23 November 2006. Despite the existence of two eye witnesses in the case, no official investigation has been conducted to date because the accused are BSF personnel. The local police allegedly refused to register the complaint of the victim’s family, saying that they could not do anything for complaints about the misdeeds of the BSF. No further action into this case has been taken by the authorities since the cremation of the victim’s body on 26 November 2007.
CASE DETAILS:
Mr. Akhil Mondal was a resident of Harudanga village, Raninagar, Murshidabad district, West Bengal state, India. On 23 November 2006, several unidentified Border Security Force (BSF) officers allegedly shot Mr. Akhil Mondal at a place near the Out Post No.6 of BSF. The two villagers from the same village witnessed that the victim was shot dead by the BSF personnel. The bullet went entered the victim’s head through his left ear and exited through the right eye; he died immediately.
Immediately after the family received news about Akhil’s death, they attempted to lodge a written complaint about the incident and tried to bring the alleged perpetrators before justice in the court. However the Raninagar police allegedly did not accept the family’s complaint and said that they only receive such a complaint after the victim’s body was cremated and subsequent rituals were completed. The AHRC suspect that the police proposal to the family was an intention to destroy forensic evidence before the filing of the complaint, which subsequently cannot be effectively investigated due to lack of evidence.
Later on that day, the victim’s family brought the Akhil’s body to the Lalbagh Hospital for post mortem examination in order that their complaint to be registered by the police. During the examination, several armed BSF officers stationed inside of the hospital to pressure the medical doctors, who conducted post mortem examination. As a consequence, the medical doctor told the victim’s family that he could not find the specific reason of his death.
On the following day on November 24, the doctors in the Lalbagh Hospital sent the victim’s body to the New General Hospital which is a district’s public hospital in Bahrampur, Murshidabad district for another post mortem examination to affirm the cause of the death. However the doctors in the hospital did not examine the victim’s body and sent the body to the Nilratan Sircar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata for another post mortem examination on the same day. Finally the second post mortem examination was conducted there however the examination result report has not been revealed to the family.
The victim’s body was cremated on November 26 in Kolkata and the victim’s family returned to the Raninagar police station to lodge a complaint against the BSF officers concerned. However, a Sub-Inspector Ramakanta Sarkar and the other officer in duty allegedly refused to register the family’s complaint without giving appropriate reasons. On the contrary, those two police officers spoke outrageously to the victim’s family and remarked that they support the alleged misdeeds of the BSF officers and blamed the victim as a cattle smuggler.
After the family left the police station, they made a phone call to lodge a complaint over the phone to the police station and the family was told that they should make a complaint to the Sub-Inspector Rajat Das in the Raningar Police Station. However when the family member went to see the Sub-Inspector with the other two villagers, two Sub-Inspectors, Rajat Das and Ramakanta Sarkar, refused to receive the complaint again. They also used very abusive language to the victim’s family and the other two villagers. Through this, the family also learned that the BFS officers allegedly killed another person called Abhilash Mondal who was from the same village of the victim. In addition, they claimed that the absolute impunity of the BSF officers as well as police officers no matter how the villagers made complaints against them to the government authorities and human rights organizations.
There have not been conducted any proper investigation into this case and no appropriate legal remedies have been provided to the victim’s family up until now.
The AHRC concerns the situation in India that police authorities have been widely enjoying their impunity, and emphasise that such practice have obstructed the development of justice mechanisms in the country which is continuously putting the citizens under great sufferings. We therefore call for an immediate intervention into this case to be investigated impartially and to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below and urge them an immediate intervention in this case. Please also urge them to provide necessary assistances for the victim’s family to seek legal remedies.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear __________,
INDIA: No investigation into an alleged murder of a villager by Border Security Force
Name of victim: Mr. Akhil Mondal, the resident of Harudanga Village, Raninagar, Murshidabad district, West Bengal state, India
Alleged perpetrators: Several unidentified officers of the Border Security Force (BSF), Battalion No. 136 of F Company, Out Post No. 6, Kaharpara, Raninagar, Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India
Date of the incident: 23 November 2006
Place of the incident: Near the Out Post No.6 of BSF
I am writing to you to express my grave concern about the alleged extra-judicial killing of one villager named Mr. Akhil Mondal residing the address mentioned above by the BSF personnel on 23 November 2006. To date no proper investigation has been conducted by the local police because the accused are the BSF personnel.
On 23 November 2006, the victim was shot dead by several unidentified BSF personnel in place near the Out Post No.6 of BSF. The alleged perpetrators are allegedly from Battalion No. 136 of F Company, Out Post No. 6, Kaharpara, Raninagar, Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India. According to the two eye witnesses from the same village, the bullet went through from the victim’s left ear to the right eye and he died immediately on the spot.
I am informed that when the victim’s family tried to lodge a written complaint about the incident to the Raninagar Police Station on the same day, the police refused to do so and allegedly told the family that they would receive such a complaint only after the victim’s body was cremated. I am concerned that the police proposal has an intention to destroy forensic evidence before file the complaint, which subsequently cannot be effectively investigated due to lack of evidence.
Later on that day, the post mortem examination was conducted on the victim’s body at the Lalbagh Hospital. However, during the examination, several armed BSF officers were stationed inside of the hospital to intimidate the doctors and accordingly the doctor, who conducted the post mortem, told the victim’s family that he could not find the specific reason of his death. On November 24, the family arranged the second post mortem examination at the Nilratan Sircar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata but its result has not been revealed to the family. The victim’s body was cremated on November 26 in Kolkata.
I am annoyed to learn that after the cremation of the victim’s body, a Sub-Inspector Ramakanta Sarkar and the other officer of the Raninagar police station allegedly refused to register a complaint of the family against the BSF personnel, without giving appropriate reasons. The family again approached the Sub-Inspectors Rajat Das and Ramakanta Sarkar of the Raningar Police Station, who refused to receive the complaint. Instead, the sub inspectors allegedly abused the family and with very abusive language. I am learned that no police investigation has been conducted in this case to date.
I am deeply concerning about the situation in India that police authorities have been widely enjoying their impunity as to the case of the murder of Akhil Mondal. It is beyond my understanding the situation that the police could refuse to register a complaint from citizens in violation of their mandate, especially when misbehaviours of sate actors were involved in the cases. No justifications should be admitted for absence of appropriate actions by the police and other governmental authorities in this case.
I would argue that the alleged extra-judicial killing of the victim is in violation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which the India is a state party.
I therefore urge your immediate intervention into this case so that impartial and thorough investigation into the case be conducted immediately and the alleged perpetrators be identified and brought to justice without further delay. I also request you to ensure that the victim’s family can receive effective legal remedies.
I look forward your appropriate intervention into this important matter.
Sincerely yours,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:
1. Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Chief Minister/ Minister of Home Department
Government of West Bengal
Writer’s Building
Kolkata – 700 001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 5480/ 2214 1341
2. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission of India
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi -110001
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016
Email: chairnhrc@nic.in
3. Chief Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata – 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 22144328
4. Home Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata – 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 22143001
Email: sechome@wb.gov.in
5. Mr. A. B. Bhora
Director General & Inspector General of Police
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings
Kolkata-1
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 4498 / 2214 5486
6. Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen
Chairman
West Bengal Human Rights Commission
Bhabani Bhavan, Alipore
Kolkata – 700027
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 4797259 / 5558866
Fax: +91 33 4799633
Email: wbhrc@cal3.vsnl.net.in
7. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXECUTIONS)
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
