Orissa - People's watch

On 29 April 2008, an unidentified person called Bijay and told him to come to the backside of Baranga
College immediately. When he got there he saw Pritam’s body lying in a hole. At that time, the police
team, the scientific team, Deputy Commissioner of Police Himansu Lal, Assistant Commissioner of
Police Suresh Mohapatra, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sarat Sahu, Inspector-in-Charge
Mancheswar, Jaganath Pradhan, Officer-in-Charge Baranga, Anil Kumar Beuria and Executive
Magistrate Purna Chandra Das were present there.
Somebody had poured acid on Pritam’s face so that Bijay could hardly recognise him. He could
recognise his jeans, green shirt, chapel and mobile phone and thereby confirm that the dead body was
his son. But Pritam’s motorcycle, chain, ring, watch and another mobile phone were missing. The
Police took away Pritam’s dead body and sent it for post mortem. After the post mortem, the police
handed the body over to Bijay. When the post-mortem was done, no Radiography was undertaken and
no Magistrate was present except two police constables.
In spite of the proof that Pritam had been murdered, the police did not advance the case. Even after three
months the police had not arrested any body in the case and the accused continuously threatened Bijay.
On 14 May 2008, Bijay and five other villagers met the DCP and informed him of the police inaction in
the handling of the case. In response to this, the DCP expressed that he would personally take necessary
steps within three days.
Bijay and Manorama have decided to commit suicide in front of the Chief Minister’s office, if the DCP
does not take action to advance the case.
Orissa
111
FF Code : EU/OR/KHURDA /149/2008
Victim(s) : Subasini Das
Perpetrator(s) : Niranjana Das, Police officer, Lingaraj PS
Location : Dayanadi Bridge
Date of incident : 08/05/2008
Background and Summary of the case:
The victim Subasini Das (65) was a resident of Anandpur village, Khurda. She was a housewife.
On 7 May 2008, Subasini and her son went to Bhubaneswar to attend a marriage ceremony.
On next day 8 May 2008, they were returning to Banamalipur on her son’s motorcycle. Near Dayanadi
Bridge, a Car had been involved in an accident and was now dragged by Lingaraj Police. Suddenly the
car was disconnected from the police van dragging it, and it hit the motorcycle with Subasini and her son
and they fell down. They were both injured and Subasini became unconscious.
Instead of helping Subasini and her son to go to the hospital for medical care, the police officers took
away their motor cycle and asked Subasini’s son to show them the documents of the motorcycle. The
motor cycle was returned to Subasini’s son on 11 May 2008.
Annual Report on Torture
2008