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