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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Jharkhand
to submit a report on the death of Santu
Munda. 45
In August 2004, 50-year-old Lepsi
Devi, a resident of Tilaya Tolak in Garhwa
district reportedly died of starvation and
malnutrition. The victim had reportedly
survived on herbs for one month before her
death. Her son and daughter-in-law left the
place to escape starvation. Several other
residents of the village were reportedly
facing starvation. However, the district
administration denied any starvation
death. 46
Machindra Mahto, a farmer from
Tikratoli village, committed suicide by
consuming pesticides in first week of
September 2004. He had taken a loan of
Rs 70,000 from money lenders and was
unable to repay it. Like Machindra
hundreds of farmers in the state have been
reeling under heavy debt and desperation. 47
On 17 October 2004, 15-year-old
Bduba Mushar died inside a roadside
shelter at Pirojpur in Maherama block of
Godda district due to starvation. Mushar
took to begging to support himself and his
80-year-old grandmother, Tunia Devi,
after the death of his parents within a span
of two years. 48
In October 2004, 50-year-old Jalia
Mahara, a poor widow, died of
malnutrition in Fulchi village under
Madhupur subdivision of Deoghar district.
Lakshman Mahara, a relative, stated that
the villagers had approached the local
administration a number of times for grant
of old-age pension for the woman, who
had to beg to earn her bread as she was
114
childless. But the villagers alleged that the
administration took no step to provide
relief to the hapless woman. 49
A two-member committee appointed
by the Jharkhand government on a directive
from the Supreme Court following reports
of starvation death in the state found that
the Block Development Officer (BDO) of
Paki block in Palamau district, Ibrara
Hassan, had directed his subordinates not to
provide any foodgrains to people in Ulgara
village because they exposed the hunger
death of a woman in the village to reporters.
The BDO allegedly promised the villagers
to dig two wells and a pond in the area if
they denied that the hunger death took place
in August 2004. The investigation
committee has reportedly recommended
action against the BDO. The committee
also found that seventeen families in the
village were facing acute hunger and
needed immediate relief. 50
VI. Misue of POTA
Jhakhand had the highest number of
detainees under the POTA. A total of 128
POTA cases have been lodged by the State
Police and 281 persons were arrested since
POTA was invoked in 2002. The official
number of POTA arrests in other states
were as follows: 181 in Jammu and
Kashmir, 83 in Gujarat, 44 in Delhi, 42 in
Maharashtra, 41 in Tamil Nadu, 40 in
Andhra Pradesh, 28 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 in
Sikkim, and 3 in Himachal Pradesh. 51
On 6 September 2002, the state police
raided the house of one Hemlal Mahato
whom they suspected to be an activist of