annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Jharkhand
prisoners, Arvind Singh and Mangalu
Lohar. A five-member team of the
Jharkhand State Minorities Commission
led by its vice- chairman Khem Singh
probed the custodial death of Tez Ranveer
Singh and concluded that Tez was
murdered. He was beaten up by his fellow
prisoners with a stick. “But who gave them
the stick?” asked P.K. Das, a member of
the investigating team. 10 The capacity of
the Sakchi jail is about 198; but over 900
inmates were lodged in the jail. 11
ii. Arbitrary arrest, detention and
torture
Arbitrary arrest, detention and torture
by the police for extracting confessions or
information about the PWGs are common
in Jharkhand.
On 28 April 2004, at least a dozen
lawyers at Dhanbhad Court were
reportedly injured after being allegedly
beaten up by a group of policemen. A
newspaper vendor, Dwarika Paswan was
injured in an accident when a speeding
truck hit him on the busy Court Road.
Many lawyers and their clients reportedly
rushed to his help, thus creating a huge
crowd on the road. When a police van
escorting undertrials from Dhanbad jail to
the court was caught in the crowd, its
driver allegedly manhandled lawyer U.K.
Barnwal. Soon after an altercation
followed between the policemen and the
lawyers. The police came in large
numbers and beaten up whoever they
could lay their hands on. 12
On 4 July 2004, the Dhalbhumgarh
108
police picked up three youth, Rajen
Munda, Mahendra Munda, both residents
of Jiyan village in Ghurabandha, and
Suresh Munda of Maheshpur of
Ghurabandha village from the local haat
(marketplace) accusing them of being
sympathisers of People’s War.
Immediately after their arrest, the police
official concerned flashed news across the
sub-divisional area to have rounded up
three suspected extremists from the
Dhalbhumgarh bazaar. Police wanted the
poor villagers to pay a hefty amount to
release them. As they could not pay, they
were remanded to Ghurabanda Police
Station and later to judicial custody. 13
On 5 July 2004, a two-member factfinding
team of the National Human
Rights Commission began investigations
into the complaint filed by Poonam Devi,
wife of Anil Singh, who was shot at by
Jhumri Tilaiya police on 16 November
2001. Singh was shot in the leg allegedly
outside his home. Poonam Devi had
claimed that her husband was tortured and
falsely implicated by then officer incharge
of Jhumri Tilaiya police station
Ramrekha Pandey. Investigating officers
T. S. Rao and Manmohan met Singh at the
Koderma sub-jail. They also met Pandey,
senior police officials of the district and
Deputy Commissioner Rahul Sharma.
Singh’s left leg has reportedly become
dysfunctional after the incident. 14
On 17 November 2004, a group of
policemen from Vishnugarh police station
in the Hazaribagh district looted electronic
goods - a VCP, a colour TV, a stabilizer etc.