Sara Jahan …

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES- TAMIL NADU AND PUDUCHERRY
Hussaina Manzil, III Floor, 255 (old No. 123) Angappa Naicken Street, Chennai 600 001.
Phone: 91-44- 25352459
President: Dr. V. Suresh
94442-31497
General Secretary: S. Balamurugan
94432-13501

19 March 2012

To
The Chief Reporter FOR FAVOUR OF PUBLICATION

PUCL CONDEMNS THE UNPROVOKED ARRESTS OF THE ANTI-KKNPP ACTIVISTS

Sir/Madam,

PUCL, TAMIL NADU-PUDUCHERRY strongly condemns the arbitrary and illegal exercise of police repression by the Tamil Nadu State Government against peacefully demonstrating local protestors in Koodankulam today, 19.3.2012. What exposes the deceitful move of the State Government is the fact that the State Government which had been conducting discussions with the protesting villagers, did not even bother to inform the public about its final decision; while so, the Tamil Nadu State Government moved in more than 5,000 armed police early this morning encircling Idinthakrai and neighbouring villages. The operation resembled a military action of `encirclement and suppression’ and was wholly an unnecessary show of police might against peaceful, unarmed demonstrators.

The Police action against idinthakrai villagers resembles the Jalianwalabagh incident and raises concern about the true intention of the State Government’s action coming immediately after the Sankarankovil bye-elections. The least the State Government could have done is to take the Koodankulam and Idinthakarai villagers into confidence and engage in democratic discussions. Such Police action is wholly unwarranted and is meant to intimidate local villagers and citizens.

We condemn the State Government’s dishonest police crackdown as an act of democratic betrayal without parallel.

We condemn the illegal arrest of villagers as also the arrest of Sivasubramaniam, Advocate and Rajalingam at the struggle committee office which was set up near the plant with the concurrence and approval of the District Collector and the State government aothers. PUCL demands immediate and unconditional release of all arrested villagers. PUCL also demands immediate withdrawal of Police force from the area. PUCL also calls upon the state government to resume dialogue with the villagers and desist from using force and unleashing repression.

With Regards,

(Dr. V. Suresh)
National Secretary.

Shri Raman Singh
Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh
Room No. 303, Mantralaya, D.K.S. Bhavan,
Raipur (C.G.) 492001
Fax # 0771 2221306, 2331001

Date: 28 November 2011

Subject: Justice needs to be served to soni sori: demand for action
against officials responsible for custodial torture and deception in
court.

Sir,

We have already written to you in protest against the custodial
torture of Soni Sori of Dantewara district (letter attached). Further,
at a meeting with your Principal Secretary, N. Baijendra Kumar in
Delhi on 14th October 2011, he assured us that she was ‘safe in jail’
and that ‘her wounds were not serious.’ He also said that the Health
Secretary had confirmed the ‘fact’ and so there was no need for concern
about her safety.

However, as all the facts reveal, this was far from the truth.

• The video that emerged showing Soni writhing in pain in the
  Dantewada District Hospital on 11 October was indeed, was evidence of
  custodial torture. On 15th October, the District Hospital, Dantewada
  medical report confirmed that she had contusion in her head and spine
  and that black marks were visible on her finger tips – further
  confirming this fact.
• In her recent letter to the Supreme Court, Soni Sori clearly
  states that she had been pulled out of her cell at the Jagdalpur
  Police Station at ‘midnight of 8th/9th October on the orders of SP
  Ankit Garg, stripped and given electric shocks’. She woke up the next
  morning with acute pain all over her body, head and spine. That she
  could not even get down from the vehicle and walk to the court and be
  presented in front of the Magistrate is further proof of the extreme
  pain that she was undergoing because of the injuries inflicted upon
  her the previous night.

At this point itself we had ample reason to fear that Soni had also
been subjected to sexual abuse and torture. This apprehension has also
been proven true with the revelations of the medical report of the NRS
Medical College Hospital in Kolkata which has stated clearly that two
stones had been inserted in her vagina and one in her rectum, and that
she has annular tears in her spine. Such conduct by police officials
is absolutely outrageous and cannot go unpunished!

It is shocking that she has been subjected to all this after she was
taken from the Saket Court in Delhi on assurances that there would be
no physical or mental torture, and that all investigations would be
conducted as per the law.

In the strongest words, we demand that the state government of Chattisgarh:

1. Immediately initiate punitive action against all concerned
   officials who authorised her to be flown to Raipur from Delhi and
   created the circumstances where she could be tortured in police
   custody before being produced in the Dantewada District Court.
2. Initiate punitive action against SP Ankit Garg and all other
   police officials involved in her custodial torture, as well as medical
   officials who falsified her medical records claiming she was fine.
3. Stop contesting Soni’s demand to face trial outside
   Chhattisgarh because clearly she is absolutely unsafe in the state!

If the Government of Chattisgarh fails totake proper action to
safeguard the legal rights and dignity of an undertrial, it is clear
that it has no moral authority to continue in office.

* Attached: Our letter dated 13 October 2011

Signed by the following organisations/networks and individuals:-

ORGANISATIONS/NETWORKS

1. Vani, Sadhna, Kalpana, Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, Delhi

2. Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression

3. MP Mahila Manch

4. Delhi Forum, Delhi

5. Madhavi Krishnawamy, Jan Sangharsh Morcha, MP

6. Programme for Social Action, Delhi

7. Delhi Solidarity Group

8. Rituparna Borah, Nirantar, Delhi

9. Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA

10. Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad

11. Indira Pancholi, Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti, Rajasthan

12. Humane Trust, Koraput

13. Siddarth Vatysayan, AAG India, Delhi

14. Rakhi Sehgal, NTUI, Delhi

15. Ammu Abraham, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Mumbai

16. Meena Seshu, SANGRAM/VAMP, Sangli

17. Madhu Mehra, Partners in Law for Development

18. Mary E John, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi

19. Action India, Delhi

20. Saumya Uma, Women’s Research and Action Group, Mumbai

21. Nandita Shah, Akshara, Mumbai

22. Rachana Atri, India Social Institute, Delhi

23. Pyoli Swatija, Vidyarthi Yuvjan Sabha

24. Chayanika, Lesbian and Bisexuals in Action

25. Nidhi Agarwal, Him Dhara, Palampur, HP

26. Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

27. Anurag Modi, Shramik Adivasi Sangathan

28. Shamim Modi, Samajwadi Jan Parishad

29. Sylvie Palit, Narmada Bachao Andolan

30. Anuradha Talwar, Shramajivi Mahila Samity (West Bengal)

31. Dipika Nath, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Rights Programme,
Human Rights Watch

32. Vimochana, Begaluru

INDIVIDUALS

1. Prof. Uma Chakravarti

2. Prof. Nandini Sundar

3. Vasant Kannabiran, Hyderabad

4. Mamta Dash

5. Maya Rao

6. Geetha Nambisan

7. Anomita Goswami

8. Sahana Basavapatna

9. Kamayani Bali Mahibal

10. Kiran Shaheen

11. Purnima

12. Shalini Gera, student

13. Harshita Yalamarty, Student, JNU

14. Bela Bhatia

15. Rajshri Dasgupta, Kolkata

16. Leena Ganesh

17. Nalini Visvanathan

18. Sharamya Nayak, Koraput

19. Pushpa Achanta, Bangalore

20. Rashmi Singh

21. Anandi S, Chennai

22. Dunu Roy

23. Ponni Arasu

24. Srila Roy

25. Bishakha Dutta

26. Anna George

27. Pramada Menon

28. Dilip Simeon

29. Veena Gowda

30. Ranjana Padhi

31. Kalpana Kannabiran

32. Laxmi Murthy

33. Uma Chandru

34. Sandhya Srinivasan

35. Veena Shatrugna

36. Shobha SV

37. Mukul Mangalik, Associate Professor, Ramjas College, University of Delhi

38. Shahana Bhattacharya, Associate Professor, Kirorimal College,
University of Delhi

39. Teena Gill

40. Subhalakshmi Nandi

41. Shilpa Phadke

42. Anusha Hariharan

43. Neelima Aryan

44. Shipra Nigam

45. Ann Ninan, Journalist, Delhi

46. Prof Sadhna Saxena, Delhi University

47. Vijay Dhasama

48. Kriti Budhiraja

49. Lakshmi Premkumar, Researcher, Delhi

50. Aryakrishnan Ramakrishnan, Thiruvananthapuram

51. Sudha Bharadwaj

52. Purwa Bharadwaj, Delhi

53. Kalyani Menon-Sen, Gurgaon

54. Rajesh Srinivas

55. Janaki Abraham

Note: A copy of the appeal has also been sent to the National Human Rights Commission

International Alliance for the Defense of Human Rights in India

November 14, 2011

Ms. Mamta Sharma
Chairperson
National Commission for Women
4 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: +91 11 2323 6154

Dear Ms Sharma:

On October 20, 2011, the Supreme Court of India ordered the government of the state of Chhattisgarh to send Soni Sori, an adivasi (indigenous) school teacher and prisoner, to a hospital in Kolkata in the neighboring state of West Bengal for independent medical examination, after credible reports surfaced of her torture and mistreatment by the Chhattisgarh police[1]. The Court ordered the hospital administration to submit its report on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. Sori has since been examined by the hospital in Kolkata and the report is expected to be submitted next week. Sori has been sent back to a prison in Chhattisgarh where there is grave danger that she is being tortured and mistreated by the police. Sori’s life itself could be in danger. Therefore, we ask for your urgent intervention with the Government of India to protect Soni Sori.

Soni Sori is the aunt of Lingaram Kodopi, a young journalist who was arrested on September 9 on charges of collecting money for the Maoists. She is also the mother of three young children, now in the care of her brother, with her husband already imprisoned in Chhattisgarh on false charges. Sori fled the state fearing for her life and reached New Delhi seeking legal assistance. She was arrested on October 4th by the Delhi police acting under the directions of the Chhattisgarh police. The police allege that Sori is involved in the same case, and have also charged her in several other cases. An examination of publicly available materials demonstrates that the charges against both of them are false and politically motivated [2,3,4,5]. Amnesty International has declared both Sori and Lingaram Kodopi prisoners of conscience and has demanded that the charges against them be dropped and that they be freed unconditionally [6. See also 7.].

In response to petitions filed in courts in Delhi, a judge ordered the Chhattisgarh police on October 7th to take all measures to ensure Soni Sori’s safety in transit. Produced before a court in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh the next day, a Saturday, a judge granted police custody of Sori, but ordered that she be medically examined prior to taking custody of her and before being produced before the court the following Monday [8]. However, the police failed to produce Sori before the court on Monday, claiming she had suffered serious injuries falling down in the prison bathroom and had to be admitted to a hospital. A video captured by a reporter in the hospital showed her writhing in severe pain on a hospital bed [9]. A medical examination conducted by doctors in the hospital showed “contusions” on her head and “tenderness in her lumbar region,” likely to have been caused by “a hard and blunt object,” but observed that there were no visual signs of “bony fractures [10].” The medical report also noted black marks on both her middle fingers. We suspect these marks were caused by the administration of electric shocks by the police. The police took her to hospitals in Jagdalpur and Raipur later in the week. The medical reports from these hospitals noted that X-Ray and CAT scans showed no fractures, in line with observations previously made by the doctors in Dantewada after visual inspection, but the reports remained silent on the their other observations.

Soni Sori claimed initially, in the presence of the police, that her injuries were caused by a fall in the bathroom, but in a subsequent letter and in conversations with relatives, she wrote that she had been tortured by the police [11]. She stated in the letter that the most senior police official in the district, Ankit Garg, was directly involved in her torture. It was in response to this sequence of events that activists [12] and lawyers filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India demanding an independent medical examination [13]. The Government of Chhattisgarh denied that Sori had been tortured, but the Supreme Court granted the petition on grounds that “the injuries sustained by [Soni Sori] do not prima facie appear to be as simple as has been made out to be by the Chhattisgarh police.”

Though Soni Sori has now been independently medically examined in Kolkata and we await the medical report to be presented to the Supreme Court, we fear that serious harm could be done to Soni Sori while she is in Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police has a long record of committing human rights abuses and atrocities outside and inside prisons, documented by human rights organizations in India, including PUCL and PUDR as have Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch [14,15, 16]. The Indian Supreme Court, an institution for which we have the utmost respect, has also strongly condemned the abuses committed by the police and the vigilante forces organized, armed and funded by the state and national governments [17]. However, the Government of Chhattisgarh, with the support of the Government of India, has repeatedly failed to honor the orders of the Supreme Court of India [18, 19, 20].

We are aware that the Government of India has not ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. However, we are also aware that the Convention extends to all countries, irrespective of whether they have ratified the Convention or not [21]. Therefore, we urge you to take up this matter with the Government of India and the Government of Chattisgarh immediately. Under no circumstances should the Government and the police of Chhattisgarh be allowed to have continued custody of Soni Sori. As Amnesty International has stated, Soni Sori is a prisoner of conscience. She should be freed immediately and all charges against her dropped.

Therefore, we urge you to take up this matter with the Government of India and the Government of Chattisgarh immediately. We demand that

• All charges against Soni Sori be dropped and that she be released immediately .
• An independent investigation be launched against those who tortured Soni Sori and were responsible for her arrest.

Sincerely,
Parvathy Prem
Kamayani Bali Mahabal
Dr. Asti Bhatt
Dr. Jonathan E. Fine MD MPH
Dr. Sanjeev Mahajan
Balaji Narasimhan
Vinay Bhat
Dr. Tathagatha Sengupta
Somnath Mukherji
Santosh Rohit Yerrabolu
Rajendran Narayanan
Krishna Subramanian

International Alliance for the Defense of Human Rights in India

References:
Supreme Court order regarding Soni Sori’s medical examination, October 20, 2011.

www.otherindia.org/dev/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=401:supreme-court-order-regarding-soni-soris-medical-examination&catid=100:case-in-supreme-court-&Itemid=183

‘Chhattisgarh police will kill me: Soni Sori’

www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws041011chhattisgarh.asp

They dared to speak up. But that’s not done in Dantewada

www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws130911police.asp

Read the rest of this entry »

From the IFJ:

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins partner organisations in the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) in expressing serious concern at reports of the alleged torture in custody of journalist Lingaram Kodopi in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

Kodopi, a freelance journalist from one of the indigenous communities of Chhattisgarh, was arrested on September 10 on charges of raising funds for a banned Maoist insurgent group.

Reports from Chhattisgarh indicate that when Kodopi appeared in court in Dantewada, a southern district of the state, on November 1, he met with members of his family and informed them that he had been beaten while in custody and forced to sign a number of blank sheets of paper.

“The IFJ calls for a thorough investigation into these allegations and regular reporting to the judicial authorities on Kodopi’s wellbeing,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.

Kodopi’s reporting through mobile phone and internet-based citizen journalism service CGNet Swara was instrumental in bringing to light serious civilian casualties inflicted by a major anti-insurgency operation in Dantewada district in March. Observers in Chhattisgarh believe that his arrest may have been retribution for this and several previous reports that he filed.

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI index: ASA 20/???/2011
11 October 2011

India: Chhattisgarh should drop charges against Prisoners of Conscience Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi and unconditionally release them

Amnesty International urges authorities in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to drop the false and politically motivated charges against Adivasi (Indigenous community) activists Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi, who are Prisoners of Conscience, and immediately and unconditionally release them.

Soni Sodi, a 35-year-old school-teacher was arrested on 4 October in Delhi. Her 25-year-old nephew, Lingaram Kodopi, was arrested on 9 September in his native Sameli village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police have charged Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi with aiding Maoist armed groups; one of the charges against them is that they had acted as couriers and transferred funds amounting to 1.5 million Indian Rupees (US$300,000) from a mining corporate firm, Essar, to the Maoists. Amnesty International believes that Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi are prisoners of conscience as they have been arrested solely for criticizing human rights violations by the police and security forces in Chhattisgarh. The charges against them are false and politically motivated.

In October 2009, Lingaram Kodopi resisted an attempt by the state police to forcibly recruit him as a Special Police Officer to fight the Maoists. He was arbitrarily detained for 40 days in a police station and released only after a habeas corpus petition was filed in the courts. In April 2010, at a public hearing in Delhi he detailed violations committed by the security forces against Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, following which the state police announced that he was the prime suspect in a Maoist attack on a local Congress party leader’s residence.

Lingaram Kodopi also highlighted the killing of three Adivasis by the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police during a confrontation in three villages – Tadmetla, Timapuram and Morpalli. During the attack, two persons went missing and at least five women were sexually assaulted. Lingaram Kodopi was eventually arrested in September on false charges of aiding the Maoists.

Soni Sodi, who was trained by a Gandhian peace organization, Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, has been critical of the violations committed by the security forces. At the same time, both Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi have also been outspoken critics of the Maoist pursuit of armed violence. While Soni Sodi’s husband is in prison on the charge of aiding Maoists, her father was shot in the leg by the Maoists in June 2011.

Having opposed Lingaram Kodopi’s arrest, Soni Sodi no longer felt safe in Chhattisgarh, left her three young children in the care of her relatives and trekked through the forests to the nearest town and managed, after a week, to reach Delhi to seek legal assistance. But she was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police and Delhi Crime Branch police from a bus stand.

On 7 October, a Delhi court rejected Soni Sodi’s appeal against the state police move to transfer her to Chhattisgarh. Following this, she, accompanied by women police personnel, was in transit custody for two days when she was intensively questioned. On 10 October, the state police admitted her to a hospital in Dantewada with physical injuries after she reportedly fainted at a police station where she was questioned. Soni Sodi has alleged that she had faced mental torture at the hands of the police and that she would disclose later the details about the injuries she had sustained. Following this, a magistrate remanded her to judicial custody until 17 October. She was then sent to a hospital in neighboring Jagdalpur and, after treatment, is to be lodged in prison.

The Chhattisgarh police, during an intensive search for Soni Sodi last week, also raided the Jaipur residence of Kavita Srivatsava, national secretary of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), one of India’s foremost human rights organizations, and harassed members of her family questioning them about the whereabouts of Soni Sodi.

Kavita Srivatsava, who visited Chhattisgarh in March this year to secure the release of five security personnel taken hostage by the Maoists, informed Amnesty International that the state police force was trying to harass and intimidate her for being critical of its human rights violations.

Amnesty International calls upon the Chhattisgarh authorities to:

• Drop all politically-motivated charges against Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi and immediately and unconditionally release them;
• Ensure a prompt, impartial, independent and effective investigation into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Soni Sodi. Those police officials suspected of involvement including persons with command responsibility should be prosecuted, in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness. Also, she must be awarded full reparations;
• Immediately halt the harassment of Kavita Srivatsava and the crackdown on those defending human rights in Chhattisgarh and take all necessary measures to guarantee that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities without fear of harassment and intimidation.

Background
More than 3,000 people, including Adivasis, Maoist insurgents, security forces and members of a state-sponsored civil militia, known as Salwa Judum, have been killed during the last six years of insurgency in Chhattisgarh and at least 35,000 Adivasis continue to remain displaced in the wake of the Maoist insurgency and the anti-Maoist operations. All the armed forces operating in the area, including the security forces, civil militias as well as the Maoists, have violated human rights laws.

A number of social and political activists and human rights defenders in Chhattisgarh have been imprisoned for highlighting the human rights situation. Among them are Dr Binayak Sen of the PUCL, and Kartam Joga, an Adivasi leader of the Communist Party of India, both declared as Prisoners of Conscience by Amnesty International. Dr Sen spent more than two years in prison and was released on bail by India’s Supreme Court in April 2011 after he was convicted of sedition and sentenced to life by a lower court. Kartam Joga is still in prison.

In July 2011, India’s Supreme Court, acting on two petitions filed by Kartam Joga and others, ordered the state authorities to disband all anti-Maoist civil militias, following which the authorities issued an ordinance to ensure that all civil militiamen are absorbed into the state police as Special Police Officers.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) strongly condemns the
outrageous and uncalled for act of raid at the residence of Kavita
Srivastava, PUCL national secretary in Jaipur early morning today (3 October
2011). The raid was conducted by the Chhattisgarh Police with active
assistance of Rajasthan Police, supposedly searching for a maoist. We
understand that this was done at the behest of inputs from central
intelligence agencies which prompted Chhattisgarh police to seek a search
warrant. The raid is a scandalous act of maligning, intimidation and
harassment to muzzle dissent at the behest of the government of Rajasthan
which is out to victimise human rights activists who expose its misdeeds of
atrocities against Muslim minorities and poor. The arrival of police with a
truck load of them is nothing but to create fear amongst the family members
of Kavita Srivastava and others. There is no doubt that the raids were a
well thought out design to go after the human rights activists aimed at
silencing them through the misuse of law and official machinery. In all its
manifestations the present raid is in the series of acts of blatant
vindictiveness aimed at sending a message to the larger human rights
community that the present central and state governments have no faith in
and respect for the value of dissent and protest as a cardinal principles as
enshrined in our constitution. It is clear that Kavita Srivastava has been
targeted primarily because of her role in pointing out Chhattisgarh
government’s violation of human rights, Rajasthan government’s mindless use
of force against Muslim minorities and centre’s anti-poor policies. PUCL
appeals to the larger human rights community and freedom loving people of
the country to come forward strongly to resist the unabashed crusade of the
government against the human rights defenders in the country. PUCL also
demands that the National Human Rights Commission must take a serious view
of the matter and as per its commitment to protect the human rights
defenders ensure that no further harassment is meted out to Kavita
Srivastava and her family.

PUCL will hold a press conference with other human rights organisations
tomorrow at 3: 30 at Indian Women’s Press Club, 5 Windsor Place, Ashoka
Road, New Delhi.

Prabhkar Sinha, President PUCL
Rajinder Sachar, former President PUCL
Pushkar Raj , General Secretary PUCL
Mahipal Singh, Secretary PUCL
Chitranjan Singh, Secretary PUCL
V. Suresh , Secretary PUCL

Sepember 30 2011

PRESS RELEASE

The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) strongly condemns the vinictive action of the Gujarat government in arresting Sanjeev Bhatt, senior IPS office in an action that is nothing short of an attempt to intimidate an important witness in the Zakia Ahsan jari and CJP criminal complaint against chief minister arendra Modi and 61 others. This action of the Gujarat police under the direct intructions of the state’s Home Minister—Narendra Modi amounts to tampering with evidence and direct intimidation of a key witness. It is also a cheap attempt to slur his character and standing.

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A correspondent writes:

Pleased to inform you all that today 30th September 2011 the Hon. Supreme Court Judges AK Ganguly and GS Mishra granted bail to Kopa Kunjam . The case was argued by senior counsel Shri Colin Gonsalves supported by Adv. Anubha Rastogi.

As you are aware Kopa Kunjam has been in Chhattisgarh jails since 10th December 2009. He was falsely accused of abduction and murder.

Kopa Kunjam was working for the rehabilitation of devastated villages in Dantewada district and was also providing legal and other support to the victims of Salwa Judum and State brutality.
We hope that this will be a forerunner for the release of the hundred of others who are languishing in jails.