Student tortured in West Bengal to extort confession

ISSUES: Arbitrary arrest and detention; torture; inhuman and degrading treatment; impunity; police violence; judicial system; right to health; right to food; judicial system; fabrication of charges; minorities

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

INDIA: Please investigate the illegal arrest, detention and torture of Golam Mujtuba and his friends, residents of Char Majhardiar Village, by Sub-Inspector Mr Nilanjan Roy and seven other officers at Raninagar Police Station, Murshidabad, West Bengal

Name of victim: Mr Golam Mujtuba, son of Mr Nazrul Islam, 19 years old, resident at Char Majhardiar Village, Borderpara Post Office under the jurisdiction of Raninagar Police Station, Murshidabad, West Bengal and some of his friends from the same College and the same village.
Names of alleged perpetrators: Mr Nilanjan Roy, Sub-Inspector of Raninagar Police Station and seven other constables at the same police station
Date of incident: 3 March 2012 around 8pm
Place of incident: Char Majhardiar Village, Borderpara Post Office, Raninagar Police Station, Murshidabad, West Bengal.

I am writing to express concern regarding yet another case of illegal arrest, detention and custodial violence against Golam Mujtuba and his friends, residents of Char Majhardiar Village, by Sub-Inspector Mr Nilanjan Roy and seven other police officers from Raninagar Police Station, Murshidabad, West Bengal. The details of the case are as follows:

The victim, Mr Golam Mujtuba, is an Engineering student of a local college at Narsinghapur. His father, Mr Nazrul Islam, is a respectable and educated figure who tries hard to educate his two sons.

On 3 March 2012, on his way home from his hostel at Narsinghapur College with friends from the same village and chatting in the vicinity of Mr Badal's shop at Mahardiar Village, Mr Nilanjan Roy, Sub-Inspector, and seven constables set upon Golam from the Raninagar Police Station. Golam and his friends were shoved towards the policemen's parked vehicle without being informed of the reason for their arrest. The personnel physical abused the youth during the arrest and on the way to Raninagar Police Station in the presence of Mr Sahaban Ali and other villagers.

The youths were conducted to the Raninagar Police Station around 8.30pm. While in custody, the youths were denied warm clothes and were again physically and mentally tortured. They were not provided any food or water throughout their detention. The police were reportedly attempting to extract confessions concerning an earlier scuffle, which broke out a few days before at the adjoining Danrakaci Village, which is also under Raninagar Police Station.

The youths were driven from Raninagar Police Station at 1am on 4 March after the police had obtained their signatures on blank pieces of paper. They were forced to spend the night out in the open and returned to their respective home only hours later.

Golam Mujtuba visited a doctor at Sekhpara Village at 7am on 4 March. The doctor there concluded he had suffered severe mental and physical torture. The families of the other victims did not register complaints with the police concerning the illegal arrest, detention and torture due to paralyzing fear that the local police, who perpetrated the acts of violence in the first place, would react against such a challenge. Later, Golam's father plucked up the courage to lodge a report with the Superintendent of Police of Murshidabad on 9 April and a copy of that report was sent to the Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission. Unfortunately, no action has been taken to date against the errant police personnel who detained and assaulted Golam and his friends.

The above case highlights several systemic faults in the police administration of Murshidabad:

1. Lack of justification for arrest, detention and physical assault upon the victims, Golam Mujtuba and the friends who had been walking home with him that night;
2. Lack of transparency and accountability in judicial proceedings (e.g. coercing torture victims into signing blank pieces of paper with which charges could be fabricated and their "statements" presented);
3. Lack of responsiveness of the provincial authorities (in this case, the Superintendent of Murshidabad) to aggrieved locals who, despite the violations of their rights, demonstrate great courage and confidence in the system by lodging police reports

This general deviation from proper legal procedure is troubling. Such observations also sit uneasily against a backdrop of the guidelines laid down by the case of D K Basu. The police did not seem to have a legal document or memo requiring or justifying his arrest, did not subsequently inform the victims' family members their arrest and did not conduct the stipulated medical check upon arrest. Instead, they abused their positions of authority to physically injure Golam and his friends, to deprive them of food, water and adequate clothing, to extract blank pieces of paper with the victims' signatures on them and to detain them unreasonably. These actions violate the victims' right to security and liberty of person and right to be treated humanely while deprived of their liberty. These are individual rights set out in Articles 6, 7, 9 and 10 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the Indian state is signatory to in 1979.

Golam's father has already written to the Superintendent of Police, who has not taken any action to assist the victims and their families. Golam and his friends' only recourse appear to be to appeal to the very perpetrators who have in the first place violated their rights. Without state intervention and international pressure, Golam and his community face for the foreseeable future continued abuse of their freedoms and physical persons.

The AHRC has documented substantial number of cases from India over the years that reiterates our argument that often, criminal investigation in India begins and ends with a forced confession extracted from a person in custody. The case at hand substantiates this practice. A government agency arresting anyone in India should follow a set of rules prescribed in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. This includes (i) informing the person the reason for arrest, (ii) informing a family member about the place where the person would be detained and the court in which the person would be produced. The investigating agency has no right to torture a person while in custody, though it has not been made a crime by way of a separate statute.

For a public servant to physically harm a person while that person is in custody is however a separate offence under Section 330 and worngful restraint to extrort confession is a crime punishable under Section 348 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Section 167 of the Penal Code also states that for a public servant to frame an incorrect document with content intended to be injurious to the person involved is criminal. Yet this is exactly what the Sub-Inspector and the constables from Raninagar Police Station have done by obtaining the victims' signatures on blank pieces of paper, which could later be used to fabricate confessions or statements unfavorable to the victims in court. Sections 321-323 also define the crime of voluntarily causing hurt, which the Sub-Inspector and his officers were guilty of during the arrest and detention of Golam and his friends. Perhaps the article most damning of the patently unlawful acts of violence and intimidation against the victims is Article 330(a), which launches an indictment against police officers torturing a victim to extract a confession for a particular crime.

Rule of law is crucial to the maintenance of peace in any society. The Indian justice system suffers certain significant weakness which must be soon addressed. The central government of the world's largest democracy owes its mandate and legitimacy to the masses. Its organs and instruments should be held to account for their failure to uphold the law and consider the best interests of the people accordingly. Lives at are stake and reform is in order – will India's government respond to its people's cries for justice?

I have heard the details of this case and request that:

1. The statements of the victims, Golam Mujtuba and the friends who had been apprehended with him that night, are immediately recorded;
2. The whole case is investigated by a neutral agency appointed by the central government;
3. The whole case is investigated by a neutral agency appointed by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission;
4. Authorities take immediate action against the police officers at Raninagar Police Station, some of whom illegally arrested, detained and abused Golam and his friends;
5. The victims are immediately medically assessed and treated for injuries sustained by a neutral and externally appointed doctor;
6. The victims are paid an interim compensation by the government for physical and psychological hurt sustained due to that incident;
7. All papers submitted by the officers from Raninagar Police Station to court levelling charges against Golam and his friends that were not signed by the victims in the presence of a magistrate be rendered inadmissible evidence obtained under duress;
8. Golam, his family and the rest of the community receive a credible commitment from central and provincial authorities to be protected against future violence, harassment and impunity;
9. Central authorities encourage, through incentives and judicious punishment, adherence to the Indian Penal Code, Indian Constitution and the ICCPR amongst law enforcement agencies;
10. Central authorities develop systems that will enable them to discourage acts of impunity and to better police the police.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Director General & Inspector General of Police
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings, Kolkata-1
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 4498 / 2214 5486
Email: dgp_westbengal@gmail.com

2. Chief Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Building, Kolkata, West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: + 91 33 2214 4328
Email: chiefsec@wb.gov.in

3. Additional Chief Secretary (Home)
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Building, Kolkata, West Bengal
INDIA
Email: sechome@wb.gov.in

4. Ms. Mamata Banerjee
Chief Minister
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Building, Kolkata, West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: + 91 33 22144328
Email: cm_wb@nic.in

5. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi 110001
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 2338 4863
E-mail: chairnhrc@nic.in

6. Superintendent of Police
Murshidabad
BMP Police Office
Berhampore 742101, Murshidabad District
West Bengal State
INDIA

Thank you

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)