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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Madhya Pradesh
to the concerned village to conduct an
inquiry had found the complaint to be
“without basis”. 38
VI. Atrocities against the Adivasis
In February 2004, MLA Vanshmani
Prasad Verma alleged in the state
Assembly House that Tribal women were
illegally detained and manhandled by
police at Jeowar police station in Sidhi
district, and the accused were not allowed
to attend the funeral of a relative who died
in shock. He also alleged that tribals in the
area were being tortured and terrorized by
the police. Replying to the question, state
Home Minister Jagdish Vuvel said Jeowar
police station in-charge Umashankar
Baghel had been suspended following an
inquiry by the Superintendent of Police,
Satna. The home minister also admitted
that the accused were detained for more
than two days before being presented
before the magistrate. 39
On the night of 5 April 2004, a 21year-old
tribal woman, resident of
Gargaghat, was allegedly gang raped by
three persons, including Innu Mussalman
and his brother Rashid Mussalman, at
Sideshwar Road, three kilometers away
from Patan tehsil headquarters in Jabalpur
district. The police reportedly registered a
case under Indian Penal Code and the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and arrested
Innu Mussalman and Rashid Mussalman. 40
On 17 April 2004, unidentified
miscreants barged into the residence of
Budhhu Baiga, a tribal, and murdered him
138
in Umaria district. They also abducted his
two daughters and released one of them
after gang raping her. A case was
registered against the unidentified
accused. 41
In July 2004, a tribal woman was
allegedly gangraped by four unidentified
persons near Jari Ki Tiwariya village in
Sheopur district. According to the police
the woman was on her way to a doctor
with her brother-in-law when she was
gangraped by four armed men. 42
i. Displacement
On 21 February 2004, the Supreme
Court stayed orders of the central
government to regularize land rights of the
tribals in Madhya Pradesh and Tripura on
the grounds of jeopardizing over two lakh
hectares of forest. 43 The Central
government had reportedly decided to
convert 310 forest villages of Madhya
Pradesh into revenue villages, and to
regularize forest encroachments prior to
enforcement of Forest Conservation Act,
1980. 44
In violation of the Central
government’s direction not to evict the
settlement of tribal families on forestland
where they had been living prior to
1993, 45 Korku tribals were forcibly
evicted from Bhandarpani area in Betul
district on 4 July 2004. According to
Anurag Modi of the Shramik Adivasi
Sangathan, about 50 men of the Revenue,
Forest and Police Departments entered
Bhandrapani village in Betul district in
the evening of 4 July 2004. They