Twelve Women Human Rights Defenders of 'Maitree' in India Arbitrarily Arrested

The human rights defenders are concerned with the gang-rape and murder of a 20-year-old student in Kamduni.

(YORK, UK) - Twelve women human rights defenders were arrested on 13 June 2013 while assembled peacefully outside the residence of the Chief Minister of West Bengal. After being taken into custody, they were denied access to their lawyers.

Those arrested are all members of Maitree, a Kolkata-based network of women's human rights organisations which have a particular focus on violence against women and women's empowerment.

The gathering and arrest followed the refusal of the Chief Minister to meet the human rights defenders on 10 June 2013 at the Writer's Building.

Police arrested the human rights defenders without an arrest warrant. The police had arrested the human rights defenders under section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) even though they knew that the women had no intention to break any laws. They were transported to Lalbazar Central Lock Up, headquarters of the Kolkata police, and later released.

Salem-News.com Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes condemns the arrest of the twelve women human rights defenders, and says the women's arrests were a response to their decision to exercise their legitimate right to assembly and peaceful protest, and is related to their peaceful and legitimate work in defence of women's human rights in West Bengal.

“

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh
South Block
Raisina Hill
New Delhi 110 001
India

Your Excellency,

I am William Nicholas Gomes,Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

On 13 June 2013, at approximately 7:30am, twelve women human rights defenders were assembled peacefully outside the residence of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Ms Mamata Bannerjee, when they were arrested on charges of intention to commit an offence. They were released the same day at 4:30pm upon payment of a bond, but were denied access to their lawyers.

The twelve human rights defenders, all members of the women's rights network Maitree, have been named as Ms Anuradha Kapoor, Ms Swapna, Ms Kakoli Bhattacharya, Ms Anchita Ghatak, Ms Shyamali Das, Ms Ratnaboli Roy, Ms Sharmistha Dutta Gupta, Ms Shreya Sanghari, Ms Madhura Chakroborty, Ms Shreya Chakroborty, Ms Sudeshna Basu and Ms Aditi Basu. Maitree is a Kolkata-based network of women's human rights organisations which have a particular focus on violence against women and women's empowerment.

On 13 June 2013, the human rights defenders had gathered peacefully outside the Chief Minister’s residence bearing placards, having declared their intentions to the police to submit memoranda to the Chief Minister regarding the recent gang-rape and murders of a female student and a young schoolgirl. The gathering took place following the refusal of the Chief Minister to meet the human rights defenders on 10 June 2013 at the Writer's Building. On this second occasion, the police arrested the human rights defenders without furnishing an arrest warrant. It later transpired that the police had arrested the human rights defenders under section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) despite the fact that police were aware the women had no intention to commit any offence. The human rights defenders were taken to Lalbazar Central Lock Up, the headquarters of the Kolkata police, and later released.

The incidents about which the human rights defenders wanted to submit memoranda concern the gang-rape and murder of a 20-year-old student as she returned home from college in Kamduni on 7 June 2013. On 10 June 2013, a 14-year-old schoolgirl was gang-raped and killed in the Nadia district. Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee has been criticised for staying silent on the issue until 17 June 2013 when she visited the family of the student in Kamduni.

I condemn the arrest of the twelve women human rights defenders, as it is believed it happened in response to the women's exercise of their legitimate right to assembly and peaceful protest, and is related to their peaceful and legitimate work in defence of women's human rights in West Bengal.

I urge the authorities in India to:

1. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the arrest and the reasons behind it, with a view to bringing those responsible to justice;

2. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in India are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

Yours Sincerely,
William Nicholas Gomes
Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com
www.williamnicholasgomes.com

”

Salem-News.com Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes is a Bangladeshi journalist, human rights activist and author was born on 25 December, 1985 in Dhaka. As an investigative journalist he wrote widely for leading European and Asian media outlets.

He is also active in advocating for free and independent media and journalists’ rights, and is part of the free media movement, Global Independent Media Center – an activist media network for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. He worked for Italian news agency Asianews.it from year 2009 to 2011, on that time he was accredited as a free lance journalist by the press information department of Bangladesh. During this time he has reported a notable numbers of reports for the news agency which were translated into Chinese and Italian and quoted by notable number of new outlets all over the world.He, ideologically, identifies himself deeply attached with anarchism. His political views are often characterized as “leftist” or “left-wing,” and he has described himself as an individualist anarchist.