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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 West Bengal
remand at the police station for further
investigation as per the prayer (written
request) of the police. The police brought
the victim back to the Fansideoa Police
Station and put him in lock-up with
another inmate. At around 8:00 pm of the
same day, Kamal Sharma was found dead
allegedly hanging in the lock-up. The
police took the body of the victim to the
nearby Fansideoa Hospital where the
doctor declared him dead. He reportedly
had no history of serious physical or
mental illness. The family members
alleged that they saw some injury marks
on the victim’s body. They further raised
the question as to how the victim could
make a strong rope from the rug within a
few minutes, while staying with his codetainee.
10
On 28 June 2004, an undertrial named
Bikramjit Sarkar, a resident of Barobisha
under Kumargram police station area died
in the Alipurduar hospital, where he was
admitted in critical condition after
allegedly being tortured by police in
custody. Bikramjit was admitted to
Alipurduar hospital at around 4.50 am on
28 June 2004 and he died at 5.30 a.m.
There were injury marks on his body.
Bikramjit was reportedly arrested on 25
June 2004 by the Railway Protection
Force for allegedly stealing railway
property. On 26 June 2004 he was
produced before the Alipurduar subdivisional
judicial magistrate and
remanded to judicial custody. He was kept
in Alipurduar Subsidiary Correctional
Home due to his mental illness. While the
260
sub-jailer of Alipurduar Subsidiary
Correctional Home, Gobinda Narayan
Sarki claimed that Bikramjit was injured
after an epileptic attack during which he
slipped on the floor of the jail, the family
members of the deceased alleged that he
was brutally beaten up inside the jail
resulting in his death. The family members
filed an FIR against Gobinda Narayan
Sarki. Jiban Krishna Sadhukha, the Sub
Divisional Officer of Alipurduar and also
the superintendent of the correctional
home reportedly called the undertrial’s
death as ‘unnatural’. According to him,
had the victim slipped on the floor the
bruises would have been on one side of the
body, but the marks were visible on both
sides of the victim’s body. 11
On the intervening night of 6 and 7
July 2004, Soumyendu Mondal, aged 32
years of Jagul Village, Arjuni Panchayat
under Debra Police Station in Midnapur
District was arrested by police from
Kharagpur Police Station. When his wife,
Pratima Mondal asked the reason of arrest,
the police pushed her away. She fell down
and suffered injuries. Before leaving the
house the police wrote in a paper that
nothing was detected and/or seized from
the house and also took signatures of
Pratima and Pravaboti, the victim’s
mother. He was allegedly tortured and
killed in police custody. On 8 July 2004,
the police sent a message to the victim’s
family that Soumyendu died due to cardiac
failure. To cover up the injuries on the
body of Soumyendu, police made another
story that he jumped out of the police jeep