STATEMENT
AGAINST ARREST OF JHARKHAND PUCL ACTIVIST SANTOSH YADAV
We are deeply shocked at the arrest
of Sh. Santosh Yadav, a PUCL activist of Palamau District of Jharkhand, by
Bihar Police and subsequently handing him over to Jharkhand Police, in a case
registered in the year 2001. He had gone to village Dhangaon in Bihar to attend the last rites of a distant relative,
whom police alleged to be the maternal grand-mother of a Maoist. It is
pertinent to mention here that all other accused in the case slapped against
Santosh Yadav have already been tried and acquitted. The complainant in this
case appeared before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, and stated that he has got
nothing against Santosh Yadav and does not want to pursue the case against him.
But the police insisted on trying him.
Actually the Jharkhand Police and the
vigilante groups formed by it are inimical towards Santosh Yadav for his role
as a defender of human rights of the people. He has been in the fore-front in
the fight against police excesses, such as encounter killings, custodial
deaths, false implication in criminal cases, attacks on democratic &
struggling people, and expropriation of Jharkhand’s natural wealth by big
Indian & foreign companies in Palamau and adjoining districts of Bihar. He has been an active and important member of various
Fact Finding teams constituted by Coordination of Democratic Rights
Organizations, which went to Jharkhand to probe and document, human rights
violations by para-military forces.
In one of its recent visits, the
CDRO Fact Finding Team has documented one case where one poor farmer Rajinder
Yadav was arrested by Daltonganj police on 1st January 2010. He was
brutally tortured at first in Police Station and thereafter at the residence of
the then SP Sh. Jatin Narwal, resulting in his death. The police, in order to
suppress its crime wanted to dispose of the body of the deceased after
obtaining a false post-mortem report from a panel of doctors of Civil Hospital
Daltonganj, claiming that there was no external injury or sign of torture on
the deceased’s body. But the local unit of PUCL, with the support of a large
number of democratic people foiled this attempt by organizing protest action,
demanding re-postmortem at Ranchi
Medical College
and registration of FIR. Santosh Yadav as a leading member of the PUCL played a
very active role in this movement. Ultimately the police was forced to get
re-postmortem done at Ranchi
Medical College,
in which 12 external injuries were found on the deceased’s body as tell-tale
signs of torture by the police. An FIR was also registered in the case.
Subsequently, a two-member high powered committee, appointed by Jharkhand Govt,
confirmed the killing of Rajinder Yadav in police custody by inflicting
torture, and attempt to destroy evidence through complicity of doctors,
indicting SP Jatin Narwal and other police officials and the doctors.
Similarly in another case, the
trigger happy Jharkhand Police fired upon a four-wheeler in Sultani Ghati area,
in Palamau District, on 16th January 2012, killing its driver
Davinder Yadav and injuring its owner Ajit Singh. The local unit of the PUCL
demanded registration of criminal case against the police officials responsible
for it and struggled for it, facing stiff opposition & threats from the
police and a vigilante group known as TPC (Tritiye Prastuti Committee). Fearing
for their lives and liberty, Santosh Yadav and some other activists, who played
leading role in this agitation filed petitions in local courts as well as in
Jharkhand High Court.
It has been the modus
operendi of Jharkhand, Bihar and the police forces of other States, where
Operation Green Hunt is underway, to register cases of false encounters,
wherein along with some known Maoists, an unspecified number of unknown persons are
shown to have been involved. Afterwards, anyone inimical to the police, ruling
party politicians or the vigilante groups is implicated, in such cases. We fear
that Jharkhand Police may falsely implicate Santosh Yadav also in more such
cases.
We call upon the Chief
Ministers of Bihar & Jharkhand to unconditionally release Santosh Yadav by dropping
all criminal proceedings against him and roll-back the policy of letting loose
repression on the people struggling to protect their lives and livelihood,
which are being threatened by the anti-people and anti-national economic
policies of the rulers. The Govt must stop killing of the people in false
encounters and custodial torture; false implication in criminal cases; attacks
on defenders of democratic rights and propping up vigilante armed groups under
various names.
SIGNATORIES
- Dr. Parminder Singh, Convener, Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
- Prof. A.K.Maleri Ludhiana
- Advocate Balwant Singh Dhillon, President Lawyers for Human Rights & Justice, Bathinda
- Jagmel Singh, General Secretary, Lok Morcha Punjab, Bathinda
- Gurdial Singh Bhangal, President, Lok Morcha, Punjab
- Kanwaljeet Khanna, President, Inqlabi Kender, Punjab
- Balwant Makhu, President Lok Sangram Manch Punjab
- Advocate N.K.Jeet, Bathinda
- Advocate Sudeep Singh, Bathinda
- Advocate Rajneesh K. Rana, Bathinda
- Amolak Singh, President Lok Sabhyachar Manch, Punjab
- Attarjeet Singh, Story writer, Bathinda
- Karora Singh Ex-Circle President, Technical Services Union (PSEB) Bathinda
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