NHRC orders high-level probe following alleged torture, forced conversion of SIMI undertrials in Bhopal jail

By A Representative
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking a serious view of complaints into unprecedented torture and solitary confinement of 21 undertrials in Bhopal jail, has asked the DIG (investigation) to constitute a team of officers under a senior superintendent of police to conduct an on-the-spot investigation and submit a report at the “earliest”.
Calling the complaint it has received from Nazma Bi and nine others, most of them residents of district Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and are relatives of the undertrials, “a matter of concern”, NHRC has ordered an “impartial enquiry”, saying the issues are “serious” and include “confinement of under-trial prisoners in solitary cells, non-supply of food, denial of medical treatment, inhuman behavior on the part of jail officials towards these under-trial prisoners and so on.”
Apart from the relatives of the undertrials, the NHRC took into account complaints it received from Kavita Srivastava of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and other human rights defenders, who submitted their complaint to NHRC chairman Justice (retd) HL Dattu.
Giving details of the complaints, the NHRC states, all the prisoners “are the members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and are facing trial in different criminal cases”, they are being allegedly “subjected to physical and mental torture, after the incident of jail break occurred on October 31, 2016, when eight undertrials escaped from the judicial custody and were later killed in encounter with the police.”
The order quotes one of the undertrials, Mohd. Iqrar, as saying that on April 26, 2017, during video conferencing he had told the sessions court that he was being beaten up by the jail officials “daily after the incident of jail break occurred” and was being “forced to shout anti-religion slogans”, adding, his beard was “forcefully trimmed by jail officers”. He apprehended, the jail officials might kill him inside the jail.
Yet another undertrial, Inamur Rehman, is quoted as telling his brothers-in-law on May 5, 2017, when they had gone to meet him in the jail, that he was being beaten up by jail officials, adding, he was being offered extremely small quantity of food and water and there were injuries inflicted on him “by blunt objects on his body.” Rehman made an affidavit, submitted to the sessions court, on May 6, 2017 regarding this.
A third undertrial, Abu Fazal, says the order, said that, during video conferencing, he deposed before the court that he was being “physically tortured and also being forced to convert from his religion.”
NHRC notes, “Kalid Ahmed, Mohd. Irfan, Zubair Nagori, Mohd. Javed and other co-prisoners have more or less same grievance that they are being physically tortured and being deprived of food, water and basic daily need items.”
Thus, “Mohd. Zubair, Mohd. Adil, Mohd. Irfan, Sajid alias Guddu have alleged that they are being kept under solitary confinement, without any break”, says NHRC, adding, “Adil Wahid, Mohd. Aziz, Habib and Sazid have submitted their complaints to the State Human Rights Commission, on December 16, 2016”, regretting, “the State Human Rights Commission has not taken cognizance of their complaint.”

Comments

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan* “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

Activists warn of gendered impact of VB-GRAMG Act, seek return to MGNREGA framework

By A Representative The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), along with the Agrarian Alliance and Workers’ Forum of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has written to President Droupadi Murmu urging her to call upon Parliament to repeal the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-GRAMG Act) and restore and strengthen the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Stray dogs, an epsilon (ϵ) problem: Of child labour, and the art of misplaced priorities

By Bhaskaran Raman The Greek alphabet ϵ (epsilon) is used in maths and science to denote a quantity which is not zero, but extremely small *** Since the Supreme Court's interim order on the issue of stray dogs came out on 07 Nov 2025, there have been a range of opinion pieces speaking for the voiceless. Most of them take the stance that there is a "problem" with stray dogs, but that we need a humane solution. I agree with this broadly, but I think we need new terminology to talk about this.

Search This Blog