Aparna Marandi, her four-year old son Alok Chandra, Satish (16 years old)her distant relative and her two friends Baby Turi and Susheela Ekka were picked up the police on 8th December. The manner in which they were picked up, interrogated and detained, are in clear violation of all established procedures and rules. Aparna was forced to sign a confessional statement on the basis of which she has been taken away to Dumka prison. All of them were mistreated and mentally tortured during this unlawful interrogation.
Earlier in the day Stalin K. and his colleagues at Video Volunteers, Anand Hembromand Tania Deviah, spoke at length with Baby Turi and her husband DamodarTuri. Their detailed narration of the last 3 days (below) gives us enough evidence of grievous human rights violation by the Jharkhand police :illegal detention, violation of arrest guidelines, forceful confession,intimidating and abusive interrogation, threatening to seriously hurt and kill.
Given that this is not an isolated incident, and marks a pattern of silencing rights activists who challenge repression and exploitative development projects , we must take strong and urgent action on this matter. I urge you all to take this matter up in your respective individual or collective capacities to ensure justice to all affected.
Backstory:
Aparna Marandi is the wife of cultural activist Jeetan Marandi. Jeetan was a composer and singer and sang about poverty, starvation, corruption,oppression realities of life in some of the most marginalized regions in the country. The state reacted to his activism with draconian force and incarcerated him. Despite being acquitted by the Jhakhand High Court,Jeetan continues to languish in prison. It has been four long years since he was arrested.
Since Jeetans arrest, Aparna has been indefatigable. With her son in her arms, she would go from courts to police stations to government officers to conferences to rallies in the streets in an effort to secure justice forJeetan. She is one of the most outspoken voices for human rights and justice in grassroots Jharkhand.
Baby Turi is the Mukhiya (village council head) of Jitpur panchayat inTundi block, Dhanbad district of Jharkhand. Damodar Turi, a well known human rights activist specifically working against displacement and forcedeviction, is Babys husband. Damodar is also accused of being a Maoistsympathizer and has baseless cases slapped on him since the last fouryears.
Baby Turi’s Statement
On 8th December 2012, I along with Aparna Marandi , her four year old sonAlok, Sushila Ekka and Satish Kumar were to take a train from Hatiarailway station to go to Hyderabad to attend the Rajnitik Bandi RihayiSamiti (Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners) meeting. At 4pm,while we were still sitting in the train and waiting for it to move, wewere approached by plain clothed police officers. They told us that theywere Railway Ticket Examiners and that we needed to be interrogated fortraveling on unconfirmed tickets. We were all were made to remove ourluggage and get out of the train. They asked us why we are going toHyderabad. Aparna said she is attending the meeting as her husband is apolitical prisoner. I will try everything I can to get my husband out ofjail because he is innocent, she said.
From the railway station we were moved to the CBI office in Ranchi where wewere interrogated about our links to Maoist groups. They kept throwingnames at us but we did not know any of those people. We said that we haveno links or connections with any Maoists group or person. Through out thatquestioning they used foul language and kept cursing. Their whole approachwas to scare us, intimidate and to make us to accept their charges andallegations.
At 10.30 pm on the same night (8th December 2012) they moved us to theWomens station in Ranchi. They kept us in the lockup room. We were givenvery little food and after demanding it several times. They did not evengive some biscuits to Alok. They used abusive language and wouldnt allowus to use the toilet. They said we were faking the urge to use the toiletbecause we wanted to walk around. That night we slept in the lockup roomwith one male guard outside. The guards took turns to keep an eye on us.
Next morning, on 9th December, Aparna was called out individually. Theystarted asking her about her connection to Maoists. They cursed her andthreatened her a lot. The poor thing was very scared. Aparna was asked tosign a document stating that she was part of group who set a companysdumper (truck) on fire in Dumka and in the shoot out in Khatikhund. Aparnawas forced to sign it. She told us later that she had no choice but to signit because she felt her life ws in danger. The camera that you (VideoVolunteers) had given her was confiscated. They asked us to us to sweep thelock up and do things like this. They werent giving us food. We told themthat well give them money, just buy us some food! Aparna had picked up thebroom but we told her to drop it. Are we sweepers?
I overheard the police officer talking to her superiors on the phone. Shesaid we have captured four Naxals and we are taking good care of themSir.Although it was a womens police station, there were many CRPF menguarding both the inside and outside the station. Through that day we werephotographed many times by the police.
When the media persons came, there was more tension. They told us we hadinformed the media and that we were lying that we hadnt contacted anyone.We know that many activists in Ranchi and elsewhere were calling the SP toknow about our whereabouts and that the SP said that he doesnt know aboutany such arrests. All that time we were in the lock up.
Sushila too was interrogated. How come people from different districts arehere together, they asked. We explained that we knew each other sinceJeetan and Damodar were arrested under false charges in 2008.
They asked me if I knew about a CRPF camp near my village. I said yes. Theyasked if I knew about the murder of a landlord there. I said no. They said,how come you dont know about it when you are the Mukhiya of the village.I said that I was not the Mukhiya (village council head) at the time ofthat killing. The police woman accused me of wining the election with thesupport of the Maoists. They were trying very hard to make us accept thatwe are Maoists.
Only women police officers were interrogating us. But CRPF men were allover the station. They even accompanied us even when we went to use thetoilet.
On the evening of the 9th I and Susheela and Satish were asked to write andsign a document stating that we were taken in for interrogation with AparnaMarandi and were released without harm and that the police had notmisbehaved with us. We were asked to write that we had gathered in Hatiyarailway station to meet Jeetan Marandi. But we refused to write that partbecause this was not true. Jeetan Marandi has been in jail for 4 years sohow can we have gone to meet him at the railway station?! We protestedvehemently. We insisted that we will only write the facts and theyrelented. However, they made us write that we were picked up forquestioning on the evening of the 9th. We told them that we want to put theactual date which was the 8th. But they started cursing us again and eventhreatened to kill us and so we relented to this and allowed them to putthe date as 9th . We wrote and signed that statement because the three ofus were totally scared for our lives.
That night we were again made to sleep in the lock up. We were not allowedto contact any our relatives nor did they inform any of our relatives ofour whereabouts or charges on us.
The following day, on 10th of December, at about 11am Aparna was taken awayto be produced before the magistrate in Ranchi. We came to know later thatshe was taken to Dumka jail from there.
One police officer wanted the three of us to also a sign the confessiondocument of Aparna Marandi wherein she was made to write that she wasinvolved in the two incidents of Maoist attack. We started worrying badly.Just then another police officer told her that the 3 of us need not beadded to Aparnas. Well slap some other case on them, she said.
At 4pm on 10th December , Sushila, Satish and I were released. We dontknow what will happen next. We just know that they have taken our photosand our signatures on this document. We dont know how Aparna is doing,
Damodar Turi’s statement:
I am the State Convener of the Visthapan Virodhi Janvikas Andolan (PeoplesCampaign against Displacement). I have charges under UAPA and under section17 and 18 CRPC Act filed against me since 24th June 2008. No FIR was made.No information was given to me or anyone about this. That night at 9pm,police surrounded my office in Ranchi and arrested me. Police officers from5 stations were present, about 100 police men. They started beating me inthe office itself. They beat me in the vehicle on the way. In the stationthey beat me in various ways, kicks, slaps, with sticks. Then they took meto Lalpur Police Station and began third degree torture. They kept throwingnames of Moist leaders at me and asked me how I knew them. I said I dontknow any of them and that my work is against displacement and for thedevelopment of Adivasis and Dalits. So you are against all the companiesthat want to come to Jharkhand is it, they asked me. I said that my workis to secure the rights of the marginalized people. They then asked me howI met various activists and leaders and where we get funding from. I showedthem receipts of how people donated small funds to the movement. They didnot listen. They confiscated the cash in my office and claimed that it waslevy ka paisa (money collected as levy*). I felt upset and protested thatthis is not levy money. They tortured me more and made me sign a statement.The same night they moved me to the Muffosil police station. Theythreatened me that they will kill me in an encounter. I told them who I wasand and what my work was and that this fact will not change no matter howmuch they tortured me. I told them to go ahead and kill me in an encounterif they want.
The next morning they took me to a press conference. At first the hall wasempty. Then they took me out of the room and when they brought me back in,on each of the tables they had laid out *Lal Chingari* pamphlets, alongsidebrochures of my organization. Lal Chingari is the pamphlet brought out bythe Moists. I tried to protest and told the press who I am and that the LalChingari pamphlets were not mine. SP (Superintendent of Police) MS Bhatiatold the media persons gathered there that the Lal Chingari were recoveredfrom my office. The fact is that they did not find any such thing on me orin my office. This was the only evidence they produced to prove that I am aMaoist. The press then wrote both sides of the story.
This is the context under which my wifes recent arrest plays out. In thebiggest democracy in the country, there is a lot of suspicion against theAdivasi and Dalits. A lot of us are targeted as Maoists and Naxals. We haveno forum to voice our sorrow. There is a report stating how 100s ofAdivasis have been jailed with such charges. All the armed operationsagainst Maoists have targeted defenseless Adivasis and Dalits in thisstate. That is the systematic attempt of the Government. My wife and hercompanions are being treated this way because they are Dalits. If they werewomen from upper class or upper caste families, I dont feel they wouldhave been looked at with such suspicion.
My wife and others were detained illegally. They were picked up police menin plain clothes, they had no name tags, there were no women police at thattime. This is a blatant violation of law and laid down procedures. Theywere not told the reason of their arrest. They werent allowed to use thetoilet and were mentally tortured. They were not given adequate food andhad to fight for it. They police used abusive language. They were detainedfor more than 24 hrs and were not produced before a Magistrate. The policekept talking about their connection to Maoist leaders. There were threatsto beat kill them.
Looking to your solidarity in seeking justice.
In harmony,
–Stalin K.DirectorVideo Volunteers – Empowering CommunityVoicesMobile +91-99235-94635
By: Debashis
General Secretary, Rationalists’ and Humanists’ Forum of India
RATIONALIST DEBASHIS 