Who Forgot Netaji, May not Preserve the Memory of a Love Tragedy
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
There is still confusion over the removal of two junior officers in the case, which was first announced by CPM leader Jyoti Basu but later denied by the Chief Secretary.However, the West Bengal government on Friday remained tight-lipped on action against two of the four police officers who had threatened Rizwanur, whose death sparked a row, while CPI-M veteran leader Jyoti Basu said that they had been removed.Basu had earlier in the day said two officers had been removed and even police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee might not be spared. Meanwhile, West Bengal's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday summoned and interrogated two senior IPS officers for their alleged involvement in the mysterious death of Muslim youth Rizwanur Rahaman."Both the IPS officers -- Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters) Gyanwant Singh and Detective Department Deputy Commissioner Ajoy Kumar -- were summoned by the CID and interrogated. Their statements have been recorded," a CID spokesman told reporters. Police sources said the interrogation of both IPS officials started at around 8 a.m. and concluded around 1 p.m. at CID headquarters Bhabani Bhavan.The CID had submitted an interim report of the ongoing probe into the mysterious death of Rizwanur to state Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy on Wednesday. Roy said on Friday that the two deputy commissioners might be removed if their alleged involvement in Rizwanur's death and the events preceding the tragedy was proved. He said the government would also take legal advice in the matter and proceed accordingly.
The government distanced itself from the comments made by police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee on the marriage of Rizwanur Rahman and Priyanka Todi.
“No, no, the government does not endorse the statement made by the police commissioner. There is no question of doing so,” home secretary P.R. Ray said.
Two days after Rizwanur was found dead, the police chief had called a short-lived media conference at which he described the reaction of the Todis as “natural” and seemed to cast doubts on the compatibility of couples with different financial and social status.
Ray said the police commissioner would be summoned by the CID “if required”.
“Not just him and DC (headquarters) and DC (detective department), but DC (south) and the officer-in-charge of Karaya police station also appear to be involved in the incident. There are specific allegations against some other officers whom I don’t want to name. They, too, might be summoned. If required, the two (ACP Sukanti Chakraborty and his junior Krishnendu Das) might have to be re-examined,” the home secretary added.
The Kolkata police has been under fire ever since some of Rizwanur's letters to human rights groups were recovered. He had reportedly named top police officials of pressuring him to sever ties with wife Priyanka. Rizwanur was found dead on the tracks under mysterious circumstances in the outskirts of Kolkata over two weeks ago.
"I don't know who has said what, I am not aware of it," Deputy Commissioner, Headquarters Gyanwant Singh, one of the four officers allegedly involved in the case, said.
Remember someone named netaji Subhsh Chandra Bose?
The ruling bengali brahminical marxist Hegemony don`t care! Neither the Left Partner Forward Block, launched by the Eternal Icon of Indian Secular Antiimperilist National Freedom Movement, is worried of anything related with Netaji saga.
For me, when I browse for the updates in Burma Insurrection or see the Indian rural Masses mobilisation against this colonial corporate polity, the images of Netaji siege me from every direction. From Rangoon itself Netaji called, GIVE ME BLOOD, I WILL GIVE YOU FREEDOM. He established the exiled Azad Hind Government and launched a war against British Imperialism! Who may forget the War Cry, DILLI CHALO!
The nation did not forget Netaji, Bhagat Singh, Azad, Khudiram Bose and Masterda! Though India remains a Princely State ruled by Nehru Gandhi Dynasty with lietinents as Princely personalities with great legacy of Betrayal. The Indian Marxists branded Netaji a Betrayer while he launched Azad Hind Fauz. The Marxists supported the US British Imperialism during World War Two. Now despite the anti Imperialist drama, they happen to be the part pf got up game played by Ruling Brahminical comradors to make this nation a colony of US Imperialsm.
Bengalies forgot Netaji. They forgot United Bengal and the plight of partition victims and the Holocaust of partition itself. They forgot so easily the massacre of Marichjhapi! The short memory of Bengali Intelligensia is so detached with Nandigarm Singur Insurrection within such a short time!
Hpw long would they remember the Love Tragedy of Rizwanur and Priyanka!
While the skeletons from the top cops’ cupboard keep tumbling out to make the case murkier by the day, it is the common man whose voice is rising above the din of allegations, denials and political exhortation.
At the Park Street entrance of St Xavier’s College, where Rizwanur had studied, an 18-hour candlelight vigil is being held for the past one week. “Justice for Rizwanur” screamed the posters displayed on the walls of the college.
Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi said: “This is an extremely sad incident. I feel the pain of the bereaved family members. A proper inquiry will be held and no culprit will be spared.”
BISWAJIT ROY reports for The Telegraph Kolkata:
The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government is not willing to act against police officers accused of pressuring Rizwanur Rahman to end his marriage with Priyanka Todi till the judicial inquiry is over, CPM leaders say.
But the demand for action in the CPM and the Left Front is growing louder. “Those police officers against whom charges have been brought should be transferred for the sake of impartial inquiry,” Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim said today.
CPM minister Anisur Rahaman and CPI minister Nandagopal Bhattacharya also came out strongly against the police.
However, several party leaders who have been asking for some “interim action against the police officers so that it appears that the government is not ignoring the public opinion” have got the impression that the chief minister is not in a mood to oblige.
“We have decided that no action will be taken (against the police) before the judicial probe is over. If we are to accept the logic that no independent investigation is possible with the accused holding the posts, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has to resign and invite Mamata Banerjee to occupy his seat till the probe is over,’’ party state secretariat veteran Benoy Konar said.
Asked about the demand for action from within the CPM, Konar said: “I don’t know who said what. Bimanbabu’s stand is the party’s stand.”
State secretary Biman Bose had yesterday ducked the question of the officers’ removal but strongly disapproved of “police interference in the constitutional rights of two young adults” and promised “that all the guilty would be punished. It doesn’t matter whether the officers are in their posts or not”.
But CPM sources say Bose, unlike predecessor Anil Biswas, is not likely to prevail upon Bhattacharjee though he is unhappy with the embarrassment caused by the police effort to break up an inter-religion marriage in Left-ruled Bengal. That, too, at a time the party is trying to woo back the minorities after the setbacks in Nandigram.
Some party leaders will try to raise the issue tomorrow on the sidelines of the state committee meeting.
Other than Bose, Mohammad Salim, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Subhas Chakraborty, Shyamal Chakraborty, Rabin Deb and politburo member Brinda Karat have criticised the police for meddling in the personal life of two adults.
They have also rapped commissioner Prasun Mukherjee for defending the police interference and for his evident bias in favour of the Todis. Mukherjee had said it was “natural” for Priyanka’s family to oppose the marriage because of the differences in the social and economic status of the Todis and the Rahmans.
The CPM’s Anisur Rahaman today demanded an “impartial probe” into Rizwanur’s death and said the police “continue to act as agents of the rich”.
Ally Nandagopal Bhattacharya said the CID probe could not be impartial if the accused police officers remain in their posts. “The role of the police has caused much embarrassment to the government. No doubt we feel ashamed about it. The chief minister should have asked the policemen in question to go on leave or they should have themselves stepped down,” the CPI leader said.
LEADER ARTICLE: Hide Your Love Away
4 Oct 2007, 0005 hrs IST,Rajashri Dasgupta
Rizwanur Rehman's charming smile refuses to fade from people's memory. After his body was found on September 21 on train tracks in the heart of Kolkata, there have been numerous candlelight vigils, angry protests and demonstrations demanding the truth about his death.
While his family suspects that Rizwanur was murdered, the police commissioner shrugged away his death as a "simple case of suicide" even before the post-mortem was complete.
Whatever the truth, Rizwanur's tragic death, the trauma of his wife Priyanka and brutal interference by the police reflects the daily struggle of lovers who defy tradition and resist authority to marry persons of their choice.
Theirs was a romance that defied all socially appropriate norms.
While Rizwanur was a Muslim who had struggled from the slums of Tiljala to become a graphic designer and teacher, his 23-year-old wife, Priyanka Todi is a Hindu and belongs to the Rs 200-crore-plus Lux hosiery andar-ki-baat-hai business family.
The couple's crime was the assertion of their choice, which was seen as a direct attack on parental authority, community, social norms and religious beliefs.
The story of Priyanka-Rizwanur is the eternal tale of young couples trapped between their desire, the rights guaranteed by the law and their socio-cultural reality. It is about how the family, community and state agencies like the police treat love as a criminal activity and young lovers as criminals.
In the last few years there has been a growing concern about the violence -- popularly called "honour killings" -- which couples face when they marry of their own choice or have a relationship.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hide_Your_Love_Away/articleshow/2426738.cms
Please read:
RTI makes PMO release info about "Panditji's file" on Netaji
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But no clue who ordered its destruction & why
Press Release | 18 September 2007
A CIC decision has led to partial disclosure by the PMO of papers relating to the destruction of an alleged file on the enquires made by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru about the whereabouts of Subhas Chandra Bose. The bunch comprises notes from secret files, letter by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and recent correspondence between Mukherjee Commission and Prime Minister's Office under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
A selection of the papers provided to Mission Netaji can be seen here.
File 12(226)/56-PM titled Investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Subhas Bose was described by Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (1999-2005) as one which could have been of "great assistance" in resolving the controversy surrounding Bose's disappearance. It was destroyed "during routine process of review/weeding of old records" -- as Kamal Dayani, PMO's Central Public Information Officer, informed Anuj Dhar of Mission Netaji in September last year.
Dhar took the matter to Central Information Commission (CIC). Last month, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah directed the Prime Minister's Office to provide certain documents identified by Dhar. The PMO obliged, and so the contours of a shocking tale emerge.
In April 1957, more than ten years after the reported death of Subhas Bose, a file was opened in what was then called the Prime Minister's Secretariat. The file was suddenly destroyed in March 1972. Grapevine had it that it was done at the behest of PN Haksar, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's all-powerful PS. The timing of the destruction clashed with the ongoing judicial inquiry of GD Khosla. Strangely, Khosla, a flamboyant friend of Pt Nehru's, went on to write in his report that the "unwanted" file was "destroyed to lighten the burden of the record rooms".
In contrast, Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge known for his expertise in criminal law, forced the issue of destroyed Netaji records with the PMO. They were asked to furnish the copies of the order regarding the destruction as well as "authenticated Xerox copies of the Rules and Procedures prescribed for destruction of files".
In response, the PMO Director wrote that "no order as such ... could be located" and could only provide "the relevant page of the File Register showing destruction of the file in 1972". The same has been given to Mission Netaji under RTI along with page No 151/C of classified PMO file 2(64)/56-70 PM, Vol-V. The documents give no clue as to who could have ordered the destruction and for what reason. Another PMO letter stated that the Commission may "acquaint themselves with the destruction procedure of files in Govt of India offices" as laid down in Manual of Office Procedure.
Mission Netaji traced the Manual of circa 1972 and found that official files in those days were recorded in three categories. "Class A" files or the "records fit for permanent preservation" included "files of historical importance" -- those "relating to a well-known public or international event or cause celebre, or to other events which gave rise to interest or controversy on the national plane". The question of destruction of such files under any "review and weeding of records" did not arise before 25 years and prior consultation with the National Archives of India.
File 12(226)/56-PM seemed to have been shredded hurriedly and unlawfully. Why? Mukherjee Commission queried PMO on May 23, 2000 to disclose "the subject and contents of the above file and the circumstances under which the said file had been destroyed". PMO replied that the file "contained agenda paper/cabinet decision" which could be procured for the Cabinet Secretariat as "records of Cabinet proceedings are kept permanently in Cabinet Secretariat" . But Commission got nothing from Cabinet Secretariat. Ditto for Mission Netaji, whose RTI request was transferred to the PMO.
The released papers further disclose that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi reasoned in 1974 that the "file was destroyed only because it contained copies". "I can assure you that this file (12(226)/56- PM) contained only copies of certain documents which are still available in other files, she wrote to late MP Samar Guha who had wondered "whether such a vital file has been destroyed or withheld".
But, the papers show, this logic too worn thin as the PMO was unable to prove the veracity of former Prime Minister's assertion by providing documents supporting her contention.
"The impunity with which such an important file seems to have been destroyed raises a big question mark on the accountability of our political establishment and bureaucracy, " remarks Mission Netaji's Chandrachur Ghose.
Who are behind this and why is it important to know what happened to Netaji?
And Read this also!
Murder, most foul
Two Deputy Commissioners of Kolkata Police, Mr Gyanwant Singh and Mr Ajay Kumar, both IPS officers, and an Assistant Commissioner, Mr Sukanti Chakraborty, literally hounded Rizwanur Rahman to death.
From 1 to 8 September, they repeatedly summoned him and his wife, Priyanka Todi, to their Lalbazar headquarters and forced him, under threat of imminent arrest, to send her back to her father’s house That was on 8 September and that was also the last that Rizwan saw of his wife. And he himself was fated to die on 21 September.
The three police officers were clearly acting in excess of their jurisdiction. A case had not been registered anywhere against Rizwan, although some patently false information was filed by Ashok Todi, Priyanks’s father, at Lalbazar to the effect that Rizwan had abducted her. It was known to the police officers that they had legally married and, therefore, the police had no role to play in this matter, irrespective of the fact that the religious persuasion of the two parties was different.
Mr Prasun Mukherjee, Commissioner of Police, made the ex cathedra announcement at the Press conference called by him on 23 September that it was “transparently” a case of suicide. He was thereafter unable, or unwilling, to answer some pertinent questions about the “suicide”. He made his peremptory announcement, invoking an astute power of divination, at a time when he had not seen the postmortem report or the condition in which Rizwan’s body was found by the side of the rail tracks near Bidhannagar railway station.
To those uninitiated in the mysteries of the occult and given to logical and rational thinking, the theory of suicide was the least plausible, for Rizwan had vowed to fight the might of Ashok Todi and he had set out from home on the fateful day with the avowed purpose of meeting Mr Sujato Bhadra of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights and at about 10.12 a.m., he had rung up Mr Bhadra to reschedule his meeting with him to 2.30 p.m. and then go to Lalbazar and half an hour later his body was discovered between Bidhannagar and Dum Dum railway stations.
No crew of any train that passed the spot where his body lay has testified to the fact that he was hit by their train. The body was discovered facing upwards with hands folded across the chest. The skull was smashed, but, apart from this, it bore no other marks of injury and the clothes were not torn. These are circumstances that are inconsistent with the theory of suicide and point plainly to murder.
Assuming, but not admitting, that it was suicide, Rizwan was driven to it by the intervention of the police in his marital life culminating in the forcible removal of his wife to her father’s custody and at least three Kolkata Police officers, Mr Gyanwant Singh, Mr Ajay Kumar and Mr Sukanti Chakraborty, are guilty of abetting the offence. And they were all acting under the orders of Mr Prasun Mukherjee. Therefore, all four of them should face criminal proceedings for the abetment of suicide, apart from disciplinary proceedings for acting in excess of their lawful jurisdiction.
But if, as seems likely, it was a case of murder, was it committed by hired goons with the possible complicity of the police? The haste with which Mr Prasun Mukherjee chose to brand the crime as suicide without an iota of evidence, invoking his mysterious powers of divination, would suggest that he had a guilty suspicion that it was not and was keen to bury the truth. At whose behest? Mr Ashok Todi’s money or the party in power or both?
In this connection, it may be pertinent to bear in mind that the instinctive initial reaction of Mr Biman Bose of the CPI-M was to spring to the defence of the Police Commissioner and to justify his fatuous remarks at his famous Press conference.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=172556
Two officials of Kolkata Police -- Assistant Commissioner Sukanta Chakraborty and Sub-Inspector Krishnendu Das of the anti-rowdy section -- have already been removed from their posts.
Rizwanur, a 30-year-old graphic designer, was found dead on Sep 21 near a railway track with his head smashed. The top cops interrogated on Saturday had allegedly intimidated the youth after his marriage to a Hindu girl Priyanka Todi, daughter of Ashok Todi, who heads the multi-million dollar Lux Cozi hosiery group.
Earlier on Friday, veteran leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and former chief minister Jyoti Basu said after Calcutta High Court heard the case, the government would take suitable action against the Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee over his remarks defending the right of Todi to call back his daughter married to a man from a different religion against his wishes.
Basu strongly condemned the comments of Mukherjee in a press conference after the death in which the top cop almost held a brief for the Todis.
"The police commissioner's remarks were in very bad taste. He should never have said that. What he has said is his own view and the government does not subscribe to it. The chief minister has listened to his statement on television and is very perturbed over it," Basu said.
The government's action against the police officers follows intense pressure from senior ruling Left politicians, opposition leaders, intellectuals and the media over the past few days.
Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had set the tone on Tuesday by demanding a proper inquiry into the case and promising suitable action against the guilty.
Candlelight vigils, protest marches and signature campaigns were held at various places here forcing the government to take action against the cops.
Sujato Bhadra of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a human rights body, said, "I think it is a victory of sorts for all of us. But it all depends on whether the government takes action against the senior IPS officers involved in the case."
Rizwanur was in touch with Bhadra before his death and had given a written complaint about the harassment by the police officials.
Students of St Xavier's College, where Rizwanur had studied, kept an 18-hour vigil outside the college gates, demanding action against the guilty and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into his death.
Rizwanur's family and friends are not giving up easily. One of his friends in Canada has already lodged a complaint with the Amnesty International. Friends from across the world are sending emails in support of the bereaved family. And an SMS campaign for justice is gaining momentum.
The West Bengal chief minister had ordered a judicial probe into the death Sep 27 by former Calcutta High Court judge Alok Chakraborty after police involvement in the case came out in the open.
Earlier, the name of former Bengal Ranji Trophy cricketer Snehasish Ganguly, brother of cricket icon Sourav Ganguly, was dragged into the case after he admitted introducing the Todis to Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee.
The interim report submitted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal police has raised more questions than answers on the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman, further intensifying the public outrage against alleged police intervention into the personal lives of a couple.
The interim report has provided ammunition to those alleging that efforts are on to cover up Rahman's death. The loopholes pointed out are that no CID officer inspected the spot where the body was found, no inquest report was prepared, no forensic examination of the train that is claimed to have hit the youth was done, no record of post mortem on video was kept and there was only customary interrogation of those associated with the case.
The CID submitted the report after interrogating assistant commissioner Sukanti Chakraborty and sub-inspector Krishnendu Das (both have been removed on Friday) Rizwanur’s widow Priyanka Todi and her father Ashoke Todi.
None of the IPS officers allegedly involved in the case were questioned. No IPS officer, who met Ashoke Todi at the Kolkata police headquarters in Lalbazar, was summoned for interrogation.
The CID report also failed to mention whether Rizwanur’s death was a case of suicide or homicide. State sports and transport minister Subhash Chakraborty questioned the legitimacy of a CID inquiry. “When top cops are alleged of involvement, will anyone believe a CID inquiry?” he asked.
On September 21, 22-year-old Rizwanur’s body was found on the tracks of a local train, the back of his head smashed. Rizwanur had married Priyanka, daughter of hosiery baron Ashoke Todi, in August against her father’s wishes. Was it a murder which the police was trying to pass off as suicide?
PUCL 1 January , 2006
Report was released at a Press Conference in Kolkata Press Club on 30 December
State repression on political opposition in West Bengal
Report of fact finding by a team of human rights, democratic rights and civil liberties organisations (December 27 -30, 2005)
Background
From the middle of 2005 several leading political figures belonging to pposition political groups and parties, specially those belonging to CPI (Maoist) and their frontal organisations were arrested by the West Bengal police. None of those arrested had any specific case registered against them or was named in any FIR lodged at any police stations. This is in continuation with the police onslaught on political opposition going on in the state, which intensified since the middle of 2002 as a result of which
about 3000 opposition political workers and common people were
arrested.
In this context several Human Rights, Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties organisations from allover India decided to conduct a Fact finding on the nature of arrests, conditions of the political prisoners in WB Jails and detention centers. Accordingly nine journalists, lawyers and Human Rights
activists from seven such organisations visited two WB jails and three places of arrests/police raids in West Midnapore, Nadia and Hooghly Districts.
Programme of the team
The team was able to meet four UT prisoners lodged in Jhargram Upa Sangsodhanagar (sub Jail) and heard the accounts of their arrests and treatment at the hands of police and in the jails.
Interestingly the District police authorities recorded the whole proceedings on video and several media persons were also present. While the team was still appreciating the openness exhibited by the Jhargram Sub-Jail authorities, it received a jolt when the Nadia District Jail authorities at Krishnangore refused to allow the team to meet any of the several political prisoners lodged there. After an hour's wait at the jail gates, the team was told that as per instructions of the higher authorities' the jail authorities are unable to allow the team to meet any prisoner. The team visited the place at Madrasi Lines, Konnagar, Hooghly District from where Shri Sushil Ray (described by the police as a Polit Bureau Member) and Patitpaban Halder (described by the
police as State Committee Secretary) of the CPI (Maoist) were arrested. The team also visited two village-Kathgora in Tehatta Subdivision, Nadia District from where Shri Chandi Sarkar (described by the police as a leader of the Kishan Majdur Sangram Samity was arrested and village Mathurapur in the same area where police atrocities are going on for the last several months. At those two places several hundred people assembled on hearing the news of the teams visit to narrate and complain about police atrocities. Due to
lack of time the team could not give a patient hearing to all those assembled.
The team also talked to the lawyers defending Sushil Ray and others in Jhargram SDJM Court.
Findings and observations
1. Role of the police while conducting arrests: In all the cases looked into by the team, the police flouted all legal provisions and Supreme Court directives.
(i) Shri Sushil Ray and Shri Patitpaban Halder were arrested at about
7.30 AM on 21 May, 2005 while they boarded a Rickshaw emerging from a hutment of Madrasi Lines, PS Uttarpara, Hooghly. They were pounced upon by four men in mufti and forced into a waiting car.
The happenings were corroborated by local people, whom the team met on
27 December night and who declined to identify themselves for obvious reasons. Immediately both were blindfolded and after over twelve hours journey Shri Ray's blindfolds were removed, when he found himself at a BSF camp in a Jungle area. In the midway Shri Halder was removed to another car, keeping blindfolded. While keeping blindfolded both were continually interrogated by many people.
At the BSF camp Shri Ray was accused to be an ISI agent. They were produced before the SDJM, Jhargram on 24 May as accused in Belpahari PS FIR No. 28/05 dated 23.5.05 u/s 120B/121A/122/123/124A showing them to have been arrested from village Tamajuri in Belpahari PS on 23.5.05 at 9.45 PM.
(ii) Shri Santosh Debnath was arrested on 29 May from a street at Konnagar at 2 PM. He was similarly blindfolded and taken to many places and finally on 2 June produced before the SDJM, Jhargram as accused in the above case. The FIR submitted by the police on 24 May did not name Santosh Debnath among the 11 named accused.
(iii) Sk. Jakir Hossain said that he was 'kidnapped' on 22 June at 11 AM from the Sovabazar Crossing, Kolkata while he was about to board a Bus. He too was forced into a car, blindfolded and taken to a forest. He too was produced before the SDJM three days later. In all the above cases with some exceptions in the case of Chandi Sarkar
The police blatantly lied about the date of arrest, place of arrest and situation of arrest
All the arrested persons were kept in illegal detention for three to five days and were not produced before a judicial officer within 24 hours of arrest as per rules and laws.
No Memo of arrests were prepared, relatives were not informed about the arrests and no medical test was conducted as per rules and laws.
2. Interrogation and treatment while in police custody : From 21 May to 24 May before producing at the Court and again from 24 May AN to 6 June during police custody--almost for 16 days Shri Ray was kept blindfolded except for one or one and half hours a day. While keeping blindfolded he was interrogated day and night and was not allowed to sleep. A battery of senior officers from all over WB, Jharkhand, Delhi, Orissa and probably from other
states conducted the interrogation at the Special Control Room at the
office of the SP, Midnapore. The IG from Jharkhand while interrogating threatened him to keep him behind the bars for the rest of his life. Shri Ray said that he apprehends to be killed by the Jharkhand police. Shri Ray said that though the police did not assault him physically, the whole 16 days of police custody is a nightmare of physical and mental torture and all the senior police officers including SP, Midnapore took part in this torture.
Shri Halder, Shri Debnath and Sk Hossain narrated their similar experiences of treatment at the custody. In addition all three were brutally assaulted all along. In addition to kicks, blows and verbal abuses time to time during interrogation they were given the 'cherai' treatment in which legs of the victim are stretched side ways by two assaulters in a straight line so as to inflict
unbearable pain at the groin and anal areas.
The team was unable to meet Chandi Sarkar and others lodged in Nadia
Dist. Jail, but learned from Mr. Sarkar's wife Sm Mahamaya Sarkar and relatives and friends of the others that they too were severely assaulted during police custody. Shri Sarkar alleged before the SDJM, Krishnanagore on 2 Oct when he was produced before him that he was assaulted in the face with shoes by the Nadia SP Rajsekharan himself.
The police did not abide by the legal stipulations of health examination by an authorised physician immediately after taking a person in custody. Neither the legally binding provisions of health checkup every 48 hours during police custody were adhered to. As a result Shri Ray developed a high blood pressure and had to be transferred to the Jail Hospital and then to the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata immediately after the end of the police custody.
They were not allowed to avail legal assistance during police custody as per rules.
3. Jail Custody: All the four persons, whom the team met at Jhargram Sub-Jail complained about subhuman living conditions in the Jails. The food is substandard both in quality and quantity and even below the standards set as per Jail manuals-as a result all of them lost w eight to the tune of 2 Kg to 7 Kg during their six months' stay. Shri Ray developed an ischemic heart as a result of treatment meted out in the police custody. Chandi Sarkar, lodged in Nadia District Jail has Piles and gastrities. It is reported however that as per the advice of the Jail doctor, he is being provided with spiceless boiled food.
It is amazing to learn that though th