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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Tripura
kidnapped five traders from Karangicherra
village, a village on the India-Bangladesh
international border in West Tripura, when
they were on their way to sell jackfruits in
a border marketplace. 46
On 14 June 2004, a group of NLFT
cadres abducted 40 businessmen at
gunpoint from Kanpui area of Tripura-
Mizoram border in North Tripura when the
traders were going to a weekly market in
two trucks. Later, the NLFT members
released 16 businessmen and abducted the
remaining. 47
The NLFT demanded Rs 50-lakh
ransom for the release of 24 traders. As the
family members of the petty traders
expressed their inability to pay out the
huge ransom money, the demand was then
reduced to Rs 10 lakh. Yet, the families of
the abducted traders were not in a position
to meet the demand of Rs 10 lakh. Local
businessmen, however, collected Rs 4 lakh
and handed over the amount to the NLFT.
The kidnappers released first three and
then 15 hostages in two phases. 48 But six
traders identified as Bapi Roy, Moran Roy,
Mahim Roy, Sukhmoy Nath, Tapan Nath
and Nani Nath did not return. The victims
had reportedly fallen ill in the hideouts
during their captivity. As the condition of
the deceased continued to deteriorate and
“could not move”, they were pushed down
to death from hill top alive, claimed one of
the freed hostages. 49
On the night of 17 November 2004,
alleged NLFT (BM) cadres reportedly
abducted two tea labourers, Balaram
Koiri, 65, and Chhota Koiri, 23 from
Sarojini tea estate of Kailasahar, North
Tripura. 50
On 28 October 2004, National
Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT-BM)
reportedly raided the house of Narayan
Pau, a rickshaw-puller by profession, at
Dingdongpara in Amarpur subdivision in
South Tripura and kidnapped him at
gunpoint. 51
IV. Violence against women
The overall women police officers in
the State amounts only 5.3 percent of the
total police force in the State. 52 The lone
women police station set up in the state
capital, Agartala 2002 has virtually turned
into a chamber of torture and repression.
In 2004, all the 14 staff of the women
police station, including Officer-in-
Charge, Ila Deb, were transferred for not
arresting a criminal accused of rape
despite identification by the victim. On 8
August 2004, wife of a labourer, Dilip
Chakraborty, who was gang raped went to
file a complaint at the women police
station. Three persons were brought to the
police station for identification by the
victim. Although the victim identified one
of them as rapist, the accused was let free.
In another incident of atrocity, Rita Banik,
a housewife, was beaten severely inside
the police station in February 2004 by the
lady police officers when she went to file
a complaint pertaining to domestic
violence. The victim had to be
hospitalized for several days. 53
The women continued to be victims of
human rights violations both by the security
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