INDIA: An Innocent Person Tortured by West Bengal Police

Our human rights ambassador contacts the Chief Minister of West Bengal over continuing police torture.

Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal

(HONG KONG) - Criminal investigation in India all too frequently, begins and ends with a forced confession extracted from a person detained by police, who may have nothing to do with the crime.

The process persecutes the innocent and allows crafty offenders to go free. This story tragically, is yet another report that substantiates this practice.

When a police officer arrests someone in India, they must follow rules prescribed in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. They must inform the person why they're being arrested, tell them where they will be detained, and what court will hear the case. The investigating agency has no right to torture a person while in custody, though India still needs to clearly establish this as a separate statute.

Short of that law, Indian Penal Code, 1860 does make physically harming a person while in custody is however a separate offence.

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May 12,2012 Ms. Mamata Banerjee Chief Minister Government of West Bengal Writers’ Building, Kolkata, West Bengal INDIA Fax: + 91 33 22144328 Email: cm_wb@nic.in Dear Ms. Mamata Banerjee, I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem News.com.I am writing to express concern regarding yet another case of police torture and fabricated charges registered by the West Bengal state police against a reportedly innocent person. The details of the case are as follows: It is reported that two BSF officers from Kaijuri-Garbadda BSF Camp suffered serious injuries in an alleged encounter with some smugglers of which one officer died from the injuries on 7 February 2012. The local police from two police stations in West Bengal, Swarupnagar and Baduria Police Stations were investigating the case. Unfortunately, often criminal investigations in India are limited to detaining persons and torturing them to extract confessions for which the police would detain anyone they suspect, irrespective of the fact that whether they have a good reason to suspect anyone or not on the first place. The victim in this case is one such unfortunate person who was picked up by the police and subjected to torture. The victim, Babulari Gazi, is in fact an auto rickshaw (a three wheeler passenger vehicle) driver. On 7 February at about 5.30 pm he was returning to home from Bagjola Market with two cows. When he was crossing a place called Harishpur More he was stopped by some police officers from Swarupnagar Police Station. Reportedly, Mr. Biswajit Babu, a police officer from Swarupnagar Police Station was among the officers. The officers reportedly assaulted Gazi at the time of arrest and by force pushed him into a small car in which the officers came. Gazi did not know, nor was he informed where he was taken to at the time of arrest. At about 7.30 pm Gazi’s wife, Ms. Rashida Bibi, received a telephone call where the caller informed Gazi’s wife that Gazi is detained at Swarupnagar Police Station. Rashida immediately went to the police station to meet her husband, after arranging some local persons to accompany her. At the police station Rashida found her husband detained in the police lock-up. When Rashida requested the police to release Gazi, the police refused to do so and offer any explanation as to why Gazi is detained. In addition the police verbally abused Rashida and demanded bribes from her to prevent Gazi from being assaulted further at the station. The amount of money demanded by the police from Rashida is not disclosed to MASUM. Before Rashida left the station, the police informed her that the police is detaining her husband since they suspected that Gazi is involved in assaulting BSF officers. On 8 February the police presented Gazi at the Basirhat Court by police implicating him in criminal case, the details of which are not known at the moment. In fact, the BSF immediately after the incident of attack upon the BSF officers have accused that it was Bangladeshi businessmen who had attacked the BSF officers. This means that the police had arrested the victim in the case on mere suspicion, but after torture, registered a false case against the victim on some other charge that the victim would not complain against illegal arrest, and the officers saved from criminal liability. I am also informed that the AHRC has documented substantial number of cases from India over the years that reiterates the 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) about the place where the person would be detained, and (iii) the court in which the person would be produced. The investigating agency have no right to torture a person while in custody, though it has not been made a crime by way of a separate statute. Physically harming a person while in custody is however a separate offence under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. I therefore request you to: 1. That a judicial magistrate immediately records the statement of the victim as well as his wife; 2. Should Ms. Rashida Bibi’s statement disclose that the police officers have demanded bribes from her, immediate and separate actions initiated against the officers for demanding bribes; 2. Immediate criminal actions taken against all the police officers who tortured Gazi in custody; 3. Gazi provided medical treatment; 5. The victim paid interim compensation by the government until permanent arrangements are made to resettle them decently. Yours sincerely, William Nicholas Gomes Human Rights Ambassador for Salem News.com www.williamgomes.org

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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.