lunes, 17 de febrero de 2025
INDIA:Statement from the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, West Bengal (CRPP-WB)
We condemn the police harassment of PUCL members of Chhattisgarh unit travelling to the areas of Bijapur, where villagers were killed in an alleged encounter on January 12th.
We also demand unhindered access to all the civil liberties bodies in any of the conflict areas of the country.
Below is the statement issued by the Chhattisgarh unit of PUCL on 10th Feb, 2025 —
PUCL members were harassed and stopped from travelling to Bhopalpatnam from Bijapur by several police officers while going by bus to the SDM’s office [Editor’s note: sub-divisional magistrate, administrative head of a sub-division in an Indian district].
Date – 10.02.25
_PUCL Chhattisgarh Statement_
On January 12th, an alleged encounter took place in Bijapur (Bandepara village, police station Madded, Tehsil Bhopalpatnam) in which five people were killed. The families and villagers of two of the deceased (Micha Ramesh and Aicham Ramesh of Village Bandepara) claimed that these two individuals were not Naxalites and were taken alive from their fields by the security forces, and falsely shown as killed in an encounter. Following standard procedure, a Magisterial Enquiry was set up to investigate the incident, and a notice was published in newspapers stating that anyone with information or evidence regarding the encounter could present it before the magistrate by February 14th.
PUCL Chhattisgarh, being a people’s organization committed to upholding civil liberties, was approached by villagers seeking assistance in this process. Since many of them were unfamiliar with drafting formal statements and complaints, they requested PUCL’s help in documenting their testimonies so they could participate in the Magisterial Enquiry. In response, PUCL formed a small team of three members—Virendra Bharadwaj, Rachna Dehariya, and Pawan Sahu—who have experience in drafting such documents.
The team left for Bijapur and reached the town at around 10 AM, intending to travel further to Bhopalpatnam, where the villagers were gathering to meet them. However, even before reaching Bijapur, about an hour earlier, their bus was stopped by two men in civilian clothing who picked out the PUCL team members from all the other bus riders, asked for their names and took photographs of two members including a woman without consent before getting off the bus.
Upon arrival in Bijapur, the team was coerced into deboarding the bus and were met by multiple uniformed police officers as well as plain-clothed individuals claiming to be from the police. They were told to sit in a police jeep with no number plate and be taken to the police station, with officers citing “code of conduct” restrictions due to the Jila Panchayat elections [Editor’s note: district elections] as a reason for stopping them. When the PUCL members refused to board the vehicle, they were prevented from proceeding further and were continuously pressured to accompany the police. As more officers gathered, the team chose to walk to the police station themselves, demanding to meet the Station In-Charge (TI). However, the TI did not appear for several hours, and when he finally did, he categorically stated that they would not be allowed to go any further.
When PUCL members explained the nature of their work and their intent to assist villagers in a legal process, the TI directly threatened them, stating that their actions amounted to “helping Naxalites” and inciting villagers, and that they could be arrested for it.
This incident is deeply alarming for multiple reasons:
1. How can aiding villagers in drafting a representation for an official Magisterial Enquiry be equated with supporting Naxalites? This is a dangerous precedent that criminalizes all support to a vulnerable and vitiates due process.
2. Why were PUCL members subjected to unwarranted surveillance, intimidation, and restriction of movement when no law was being violated? This amounts to a clear violation of their fundamental rights.
3. The Supreme Court itself has issued guidelines for the police to follow while investigating encounters in the case of PUCL vs. State of Maharashtra (2014 SCC 10 635). If the highest court in the country recognizes the importance of civil rights organisations like PUCL in upholding due process, how can PUCL members be prevented from simply assisting the victims of encounters in a lawful procedure?
The situation in Bastar is deteriorating at an alarming rate, with increasing militarization and police control over civil liberties. This latest incident is yet another indication of how Bastar is being turned into a police state, where even fundamental rights such as movement, lawful assistance, and free expression are being stifled under the pretext of security concerns.
We urge the media to highlight this issue so that the worsening state of democracy and civil liberties in Bastar comes to light. What happened in Bijapur is not just an isolated case—it reflects a broader and deeply disturbing pattern of state repression in conflict zones. It is imperative that journalists, activists, and concerned citizens bring attention to these violations before democratic space is completely eroded in Bastar.
President, Junas Tirki
General Secretary, Kaladas Dehariya