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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 West Bengal
foreign countries to wage war against the
Indian state’, etc. These offences are
punishable with life imprisonment and
even the death penalty. 7
The rights of the vulnerable groups
continued to be violated. While children
were caned despite the High Court ban on
corporal punishment, women became
victims of violence including rape by State
Police, Central Security Forces and the
Railway Protection Force. Human rights
defenders, especially the members of the
APDR faced the repression of the State
government.
The armed opposition groups too
committed abuses including violation of
the right to life.
II. Atrocities by State agencies
i. Arbitrary, summary and extrajudicial
executions
The National Human Rights
Commission recorded high number of
deaths in police custody in West Bengal
respectively 19 in 1999-2000, 9 in 2000-
2001 and 17 in 2001-2002 and 16 in 2002-
2003. 8 This indicates the widespread use
of torture by West Bengal Police.
On 27 January 2004, police from
Sandeshkhali Police Station came to
Jhupkali village, 24 Parganas (North)
district and shot dead Gaffar Ali Mollah,
an alleged bank robber. According to
eyewitnesses, the police surrounded
Mollah’s house as he was sitting beside the
pond. After seeing the police, Mollah
started to run but police shot at him. He
was first hit in the legs and fell down. Then
the police party led by the Officer in
Charge, Prabir Banerjee, reportedly came
up to Mollah and standing on his chest the
OC and another officer shot him at pointblank
range. They shot into his mouth and
chest 5-6 times. After this, they took away
two gold rings, a wristwatch and cash from
Mollah’s body, although he was critically
wounded and not yet dead at this time. The
police then took away Mollah’s body.
About 5-10 minutes after taking away the
body, the police convoy returned with
Mollah’s body in one auto rickshaw. As
they passed through Rampur, Siddique
Mollah and his 17-year-old son, Riazul
Mollah, who were catching fish in the
pond of Surath Sardar were taken into
custody without arrest memo. Riazul was
allegedly implicated in a false case and
was later released on bail. 9
On 9 February 2004, Kamal Sharma, a
guard of a cement godown in Jangal Basti
at Fansideoa, Darjeeling District was
tortured to death in police custody. He was
arrested on 6 February 2004 on the basis of
a complaint filed by the owner of the
cement godown, Dilip Das with Fansideoa
Police Station that Rs. 92,000 was stolen
from his residence. The police arrested
Kamal Sharma as a suspect and took him
to the police station. No stolen money was
found in Kamal Sharma’s possession. The
police illegally detained him for three days
and produced him to the Court of Sub
Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM)
Siliguri only on 9 February 2004. The
SDJM sent Kamal Sharma to seven days
259