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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 West Bengal
police station but the officer allegedly
refused to register a complaint. 38
On 22 September 2004, Purnima
Manna and Rehana Khatun- both students
of Class III in Bratachari Gram Junior
Basic School in Thakurpukur- were
allegedly punished by their teacher
Chandrani Basu for being “naughty and
talkative” by ordering them to clean the
entire classroom. Later the two nine-yearold
students were left locked inside their
classroom after the school closed for the
day. They, however, finally managed to
return home by forcing open a window in
the classroom. The victims’ parents lodged
a police complaint with the Thakurpukur
police station on 23 September 2004. 39
IV. Attacks against human rights
defenders
Civil liberties organisations as well as
the opposition political parties accuse the
State Police of being hand-in-glove with
the ruling Communist Party of India
(Marxist). Human rights activists
especially the members of the Association
for Protection of Democratic Rights
(APDR) have been facing serious
repression from the State police.
On the intervening night of 31
December 2003 and 1 January 2004,
Bablu Das, small vendor of spices and
member of the APDR was picked up from
his residence by the police personnel from
the Jangipara Police Station. On 2 January
2004, he was produced before the Sub
Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court of
Srirampur and charged under the case as of
Ajit Bhar (Jangipara P.S. case No. 66 of
2003 Under Sections 120B/ 121/122/123
of Indian Penal Code). In 1998, some
political goons in connivance with the
police of the Jangipara Police Station had
attacked several cultivators at Chhitbona
village on the banks of the River Damodar
and tried to evict them from their land. On
behalf of those cultivators, Bablu Das filed
a criminal case against some police
officers of the Jangipara Police Station,
who were allegedly involved in the attack,
in the local magistrate court. He also filed
a writ petition at the Calcutta High Court
against those police officers, thereby
annoying the police. 40
On 17 February 2004, Ajit Bhar, who
comes from a poor family in Rajbalhat
village of Hoogly District and a weaver by
profession and member of the APDR was
arrested by Tapas Brati Chakraborty, the
officer in charge of the Jangipara Police
Station. In September 2003, two unknown
women came to meet Ajit Bhar and asked
him to help them for their medical
treatment. Ajit Bhar referred them to a
nearby doctor. On 17 February 2004, some
policemen came to Ajit Bhar’s house and
asked him to report to the police station at
once. When he went to the police station,
Tapas Brati Chakraborty allegedly abused
Ajit Bhar in filthy language and asked why
he was attached with the APDR and why
was he involved in campaigning against
bride-burning cases. Chakraborty then
asked him to give the names of the two
women who had come to meet him in
September 2003. Ajit Bhar replied that
267