Police get Licence and Awards to Kill Unarmed People

With the rate of crime in UP rising and with many known criminals decorating the chairs of ministers, it is an open secret that the BJP led State Govt. has for a long time been deeply involved in abetting and encouraging criminals. With leaders patronizing different criminals, the bureaucracy as well as the police are in tandem with the under world. Fight between Kalyan Singh and the Prime Minister himself and the patronage given by them to different groups are well known. The occupants of the political seat in UP have since long been awarding police personnel with promotions and cash in order to utilize this organized armed force in their interest. The difference with the present incumbent is that he has been making open announcements of such policies.

Enactment of the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act 1985 and the free use of Arms Act has come in handy. The Gangster Act also provides for declaring a person a gangster if he “prevents or attempts to prevent any public servant or any witness from discharging his lawful duties” and can be used against persons protesting govt. inactions and functioning. The most hard core criminals face these charges only out of ruling class political rivalry, but ordinary opponents from the poorer sections of society easily get the label of ‘criminal’ and ‘gangster’. Both under Kalyan Singh and under the present CM over zealous police officials just kill at will and present justification under cover of their ‘top 10’ and ‘gangster’ list. One such Superintendent of Police expressed his desire to complete a century of ‘encounter’ killings in every district under his charge! Needless to say the courts have been moved and have not come to the rescue on violation of human rights by the state despite the Chief Ministers openly inciting the police to kill. ‘Four heads in place of one’ roared Shri Rajnath Singh after taking over in October last in true Mafioso style.

‘Encounter killings’ also have a set pattern. In all ‘encounters’ the hapless victim is caught in the thana. The police arrange for a party with drinks and good food. At about midnight or there about the senior police officials arrive and the victim is either tied to a tree and shot dead or made to run and shot. Thereafter a detailed story of the encounter will appear in the press on how an informant gave the whereabouts of the ‘gang’, how the police party led by such-an-such official immediately rushed to the spot, engaged the gang in combat and finally how these ‘hard core criminals’ were killed and some managed to escape.

Last year in October, an SHO, OP Singh and a constable, Ved Prakash, were killed in a village under Naugarh thana where they had gone to finish off MCC people who were holding a meeting.  They reached there without informing the related thana officials lest they have to share the credit. The rest of the police party led by this SHO had reportedly run away after being attacked. In reaction to this the present Chief Minister, who hails from Mirzapur district, said, “EK KE BADLE CHAR SAR CHAHIYE” after taking over as CM and has been openly exhorting his police to kill ‘Naxals’ in order to ‘control’ the ‘Naxalite menace’ in the state.

After this incident there have been reports of some ‘Naxals’ being killed in ‘encounters’ by the police in these districts and in each case the Chief Minister announced cash awards and out of turn promotions to his ‘brave’ policemen. However a grave and heinous crime was committed by the police on the 9^th of March 2001 in Bhawanipur village of Madihan thana of Mirzapur district. Allegedly 15 ‘Naxals’ were killed in an ‘encounter’ in which two policemen sustained ‘injuries’ in their hands.

A team of PUCL activists, led by Dr. Lal Bahadur Verma, who is a retired teacher of the Allahabad University, and including Shri Susheel Tripathi (artist, social activist and columnist), Shri AN Mulla (lawyer in the Allahabad High Court) and Shri Vijay Pratap Singh (journalist) went to Bhawanipur on 18^th of March to investigate this ‘encounter’.

This mainly agricultural and backward area of Mirzapur is dominated by big feudals who are also involved in the nearby stone quarrying, mining and other activities. It is here that political activists were organizing a meeting in which activists from around the area were present. The issues being discussed related to the low wages and high unemployment. Police came in large numbers, surrounded the houses, arrested all the activists, and killed them at various spots in the village. The ‘Encounter’ theory falls flat by the failure of police to explain the following:

How come no policeman was killed or grievously injured if 15 heavily armed persons were firing at them from an advantageous position? When four persons including Devnath Kol S/o Ram Dulare Kol, R/o Village Majhgawan of Thana Navgarh, District Chandauli; Lalvrath Kol S/o Bachan Kol, R/o Village Matianman of Thana Navgarh, District Chandauli; Suresh Harijan alias Maniram S/o Ram Achal, R/o Village Purainia of Thana Madihan, District Mirzapur and Sheshmani S/o Tulsi, R/o Village Bhiti of Thana Madihan, District Mirzapur were identified, then why was no attempt made for two full days before the police threw away the bodies into the Ganga, to hand them over to the relatives? If Suresh Harijan S/o Ram Achal, R/o Purainia was killed on 9^th March, how come he came alive and presented himself to press both in Mirzapur and in Allahabad?

Police have conducted a cold-blooded massacre of political activists. Incidentally police has neither given any proof of the injury that was allegedly caused to the police personnel, nor have they sent the so-called recovered arms for testing their functional status.

All investigations so far by independent persons have proved that if there was any crossfire many policemen would have died as police were in a disadvantageous position. Senior police officials including IG range, Shri VK Singh and District Magistrate of Mirzapur too reached the spot and the whole encounter was supposed to have been led by the IG himself. Much credit was taken for the killing of these persons who were projected to be criminals. The Chief Minister himself came and announced cash awards of Rs. 2 lakh each to the injured policemen, gallantry awards, out of turn promotions etc. The district officials announced Rs. 10,000 each as awards to those who participated in the ‘encounter’.

We are here reproducing excerpts from the report of the PUCL team as well as their conclusions and demands. Details of the events are: On 9^th March some political activists had come to the village to hold a meeting with the villagers. Menfolk were sitting in Bhagwan Das’s house and some women in Balri’s house. The issues being discussed were those related to low wages, scarcity of daily work, denied rights of the villagers, etc. when police vehicles arrived and cordoned off all the houses in the hamlet at around 1:30 P.M.

The policemen rushed to all the houses and asked the people to come out with their hands raised. Gun shot sounds started almost immediately on arrival of the police. They used local boys as shields to enter the houses. Terrified by this the villagers did as directed and reached the house of ex-Pradhan, Ganga.

At Bhagwan Das’s house they entered with Pappu ahead and the policemen behind. The entry is a small door about 2.5 feet wide and about 4.5 feet high. On entry is a small open air courtyard about 8 feet x 10 feet which is well lit by natural light. Then there are two rooms in one of which the men were sitting. It is alleged that those inside fired at the policemen injuring the SHO Dalip Singh. The boy Pappu too was injured. The team saw that his hand only bears a skin-deep injury of a pellet entry. He says he ran away immediately on hearing the firing. Every one including Pappu reported that all those inside the house came out with their hands held high.

While these persons were in the courtyard itself the police fired shots killing two of them in Bhagwan Das’s courtyard. The rest were taken to other spots and killed at short intervals. 5 bodies were found near Babunanan’s house and 3 were shot dead near Ganga Pradhan’s house.

In between the police also went to Lal Bahadur’s house where his son’s ‘gauna’ ceremony was to take place. Relatives assembled were asked to come out. One young boy Kallu, aged 13 years, a student of Class 7, who belonged to Khairpur village was coming out and while bending down to come out caught hold of his pant. Immediately one policeman shot him dead. There was no non-vegetarian party which the ‘Naxals’ had come to enjoy, as has been reported in the police version.

All the villagers who were made to assemble at Ganga’s house were beaten up and abused by the cops. They even beat Bhagwan Das’s wife with lathis and kept shouting “Catch her husband and encounter him”.

One lady, named Kanchan, who also had come along with those killed was taken away by the police from the village. The Dewan and other policemen present at the thana Madihan informed the team that she was taken away by the SP of Sonebhadra and shown as arrested from Sonebhadra itself. Her whereabouts are unknown.

At around 5 P.M. the firing stopped after which senior police officials and the District Magistrate came to the village. They were there for quite some time but they did not make any enquiry from the villagers.

Disposal of bodies:  The police made no serious effort to identify those killed. Neither people of Bhawanipur nor the neighbouring villages were called to identify those killed. They had called Lal Bahadur for the panchnama but later got it done by one Govind Singh of Naugarh. It was reported that this person was a big mining Mafia of Naugarh. The names of killed claimed by the police seems to have been written arbitrarily with motivation of awards. If the identity of these persons was firmly established they should have handed over the bodies to the relatives of these persons. It is sinister that one of these, Devbrat Kol, has already been claimed to have been killed by the police earlier also.

It has also been reported that the police cremated the bodies as no claimant came forward. One of the persons killed was Sheshmani of neighbouring Bhiti village. Even his body was not handed over to his relatives who did not dare to go to the police out of fear resulting from this ghastly carnage. Only Kallu’s body was handed over. It has been widely reported that all the bodies were thrown by the police from the bridge over the river Ganges. No cremation was performed.

‘Encounter’ Theory of the police:  The police claimed to have recovered 13 firearms including 2 police rifles, 2 civil rifles, 2 double barrel and 1 single barrel guns and 5 country made pistols kattas. They also claimed that the cross firing continued for 3 hours. However the situation and the position of both the parties tells an altogether different story. These people were inside Bhagwan Das’ house in the darkness and the police stood outside in the open, entering the courtyard through a small door. If the police version of firing is true then with so many weapons many policemen would have been killed. The ‘injured’ SHO was seen going back by the villagers and the Pradhan Ganga says that he had some blood stain on his pant. He also narrated that the SHO was sitting comfortably in the front of the vehicle. Obviously he had no serious injury.

It was also reported by the employees of Sadar Hospital, Mirzapur, that both the injured policemen did not seem to be in any trouble except when the Chief Minister came to visit them. Then they immediately took cover under a sheet and posed as if seriously injured.

Feelings of villagers: Not one villager had anything to say against the outsiders who were apparently holding a political meeting and were killed, even though it is apparently because of them that the police unleashed terror on the entire village. The entire hamlet showed empathy towards these outsiders. This is further emphasized by the fact that they had suffered so much humiliation and torture at the hands of the police. The impression conveyed by them is that the way the police dealt with the situation was one of state terror and they showed deep abhorrence at the brutality and barbarity with which the police acted.

Conclusions: The PUCL team arrived at the following conclusions

1.  The only political activity going on in the village was the meetings of the villagers who were discussing day to day economic problems.

2.  Police made all persons present in the hamlet, without exception, submit before itself with the hands of the people held high above their heads.

3.  The outsiders present in Bhagwan Das’ house too had submitted themselves before the police and they were killed by the police in a cold-blooded manner at various spots in the hamlet. There was no evidence of firing by the outsiders on the police.

4.  Kallu of Khairpur was killed outside Lal Bahadur’s house even while he was only adjusting his pant to stand upright.

5.  Some of those killed were political activists who were organizing these landless and poor peasants to struggle for their day to day problems. Others were ordinary village folk.

6.  One lady Kanchan has been under police custody and has been arrested from the Village Bhawanipur, but shown as arrested from Sonebhadra. Her whereabouts are unknown. A habeas corpus petition needs to be filed in order to secure her safety.

7.  This is clearly an act of blatant state terrorism against victims who must be presumed to be innocent as neither there is any definite charge of crime against most of them, nor have they been identified. Their bodies too have been disposed off by the police improperly. The feeling of the villagers of squarely blaming the police for the terror also highlights this aspect.

8.  The police has even failed in its duty towards fair treatment to the dead bodies.

9.  The Chief Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, has been directly responsible for this ghastly murder of innocent persons. Even his later conduct of patting the police by announcing gallantry and cash awards and out of turn promotions prove that his abetment is an important motivation for the police to commit such heinous crimes against the people.

Demands: The PUCL team is of the opinion and demands that

1.  The Chief Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, is directly responsible for giving rise to a crime of such a heinous nature and should be dismissed.

2.  All policemen involved should be charged for murder and for mistreating the corpses of the dead.

3.  All the known persons killed should be given a compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs each and a government job to the dependent. This includes at least Kallu and Sheshmani.

4.  Kanchan should be produced, her safety guaranteed. Police should specify the charge against her.

5.  A CBI enquiry into the entire incident should be conducted.

Mirzapur (UP)

CPI(ML) Dharna Demands Action Against Guilty Police Officers

About 300 activists of CPI(ML)-New Democracy held a demonstration at the District Headquarters of Mirzapur and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Governor to the district authorities. Demonstrators  marched in a long procession from the Railway Station to the District Collectorate. The rallyists shouted slogans and carried placards and red banners demanding action against the police officials guilty of the killing of 16 farmers in Bhawanipur Village of Marhihan Thana by the Mirzapur police on afternoon of 9^th March 2001.

The speakers at the meeting included UP State Secretary of the Party Com. Ashish Mital, District Secretary of Allahabad Com. Heeralal, AIKMS leaders Com. Suresh and Com. Lalji, and Vice-President of the AIKMS Bihar Committee Com. Shankar Singh. Speakers highlighted the growing terror tactics of the state’s repressive machinery to undermine the rights of the people. They castigated BJP rule for openly abetting crime by men in uniform, who are acting as armed bandits against the people. The much touted rule of law and constitutional provisions are being given a go by with police openly saying that they themselves are the law. After Bhawanipur carnage, in Kanpur the police not only prevented a democratic and peaceful protest against burning of Koran and killed innocent people, the PAC went about destroying the shops and looting the property of Muslims including eggs and poultry and the Chief Minister of this ‘patriotic’ government has given a clean chit to the PAC.

All through the meeting slogans were also raised against the government’s surrender before the WTO, removal of quantitative restrictions on imports. Speakers highlighted the role of free entry of multinational companies in further ruining Indian agriculture, in the displacement of farmers from land, increasing indebtedness in rural areas, and rising poverty and unemployment in the country.

In a memorandum submitted to the authorities, the CPI(ML)-New Democracy demanded a CBI enquiry into the Bhawanipur killings of political activists and innocent peasants and suspension and registration of cases against the police officials. The memorandum also highlighted that in order to destroy evidence of the killings and of false claims about identity of those killed, the police deliberately made no effort to hand over the bodies to the relatives and simply threw the bodies into the Ganga.