Entrenched impunity of BSF men: attack on women by public officials

Kirity Roy, Secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) complains to the Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, on how on-duty BSF men destroyed food items and used criminal force with intent to outrage women's modesty:

***

This is to bring your attention over a heinous incident of BSF torture and violence against women of Tetuler Chara village under Mathabhanga I Block and Mathabhnaga Police Station in the district of Cooch Behar. The perpetrator BSF personnel attached with Barogariya Border Out Post, 157 Battalion beat the village women, destroyed their food items and used criminal force with intent to outrage their modesty. When other villagers including a child tried to protest this illegal action of the BSF, they were also beaten by the perpetrator BSF personnel. Perpetrator BSF also tried to kill the child by strangulation.
Villagers of Tetuler Chara lodged one written complaint to the Inspector-in-Charge, Mathabhanga Police Station but till date no action has been taken by the concerned police officials. This violates section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and apex court judgment in Lalita Kumari vs. State of U.P. & others [WP (Crl.) 68 of 2008].
The act of the perpetrator BSF personnel attracts section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty; section 323 (Voluntary causing heart); section 425 (Mischief).
As the victims all are from Scheduled Caste community, therefore this act of the BSF officials also attracts the provision of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Trying to kill a 15 years old child by strangulation also attracts section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2000

The incident also violated Article 19 (1) (d) and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution; Article 3 (Right to equality), Article 5 (Right not to be tortured), Article 7 (Equality before law) and Article 8 (Right to effective remedy) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 3 (Right to equality), Article 6 (Right to life) and Article 7 (Right not to be tortured) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also goes against the spirit of the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women. This heinous incident and subsequent inaction again legitimize our long-standing demand for ratification of the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT) by the Government of India.
The perpetrator BSF personnel also violated the code of conduct for law enforcement officials adopted by United Nations General Assembly in 1979 which mandates that these officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.
The incident reflects the entrenched impunity in the criminal justice system and systemic attack on religious and social minorities, and women by public officials. Therefore, I seek your urgent intervention in the case by fulfilling the following demands:

An independent and non-partisan investigation of the incident by any august agency.
SC & ST Prevention of atrocities Act should be attracted against the perpetrators.
BSF should be posted in the actual borders not inside the villages.
Proceedings should be initiated against the perpetrators of the BSF and the police and strict punishment should be given if found guilty.
Adequate compensation for the victims from the pocket of the perpetrator BSF personnel.
Directions to the Mathabhanga Police Station to register one case based on the written complaint of the villagers and issue the FIR copy to the informant and start impartial investigation in respect.
Security and safety of the victims and their family members must be ensured.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog