“இருபது வருஷத்துக்கு ஊரை விட்டு ஒதுக்கி வைக்கிறேன். யாரும்
இவங்களோட அன்னம் தண்ணி புழங்கக் கூடாது”
இது நாட்டாமை படத்தின் பிரசித்தி பெற்ற வசனம்.
இன்று அது போல பஞ்சாயத்து செய்து யாரையாவது ஊரை விட்டு
ஒதுக்கி வைத்தால் அது சட்ட விரோதம்.
ஆனால் போலி எண்கவுண்டரை தட்டிக் கேட்டதால் ஒரு சமூக ஆர்வலரை
ஊரை விட்டே ஒதுக்கி வைக்குமாறு ஒரு காவல்துறை இன்ஸ்பெக்டர் ஜெனரலே மற்றவர்களை
மிரட்டினால்?
பாஜக ஆளும் சட்டிஸ்கர் மாநிலத்தில்தான் இந்த கொடுமை
நடந்துள்ளது.
பாவம் ரமன்சிங், ரேஷன் அரிசி ஊழலிலிருந்து தப்பிக்கும்
வழிகளை பார்ப்பாரா இல்லை மனித உரிமை பற்றியெல்லாம் கவலைப்பட முடியுமா?
முழுமையான விபரங்களை கீழே படியுங்கள்.
மனித உரிமை ஆணையத்திற்கு மக்கள் கண்காணிப்பகம் அனுப்பியுள்ள
மின்னஞ்சல் இது.
We are now writing to
express our grave concern regarding the threat of excommunication issued
against Soni Sori and other social activists by the Inspector General of
Police, Bastar region of Chhattisgarh , Mr. SRP Kalluri on 1st
August, 2015 raising fears of further harassment and personal safety of human rights
defender Ms. Soni Sori and her family. Ms. Soni Sori was threatened by the
Inspector General of Police after she addressed a press conference in the
Jagdalpur press club on 31 July 2015 on the fake encounter in which a tribal
villager Hemla Podiya was shot dead by Chhattisgarh police in Nahadi village of
district Dantewada. The police claimed that Hemla Podiya, a Naxalite commander,
was killed in an encounter in the jungles of Nahadi in Dantewada district.
Source of Information on the Incident: The Regional Coordinator of HRDA for East of India
A communication from Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group
Media Reports.
Status of the Human Rights Defenders:
Ms. Soni Sori was a
teacher in a government-run tribal school in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district.
Coming from a small village Sameli of Dantewada in south Bastar she later became a tribal rights activist. Soni Sori symbolises
the plight of Bastar tribals — tortured, humiliated and caught in the conflict
between Maoists and the state.
A human rights defender,
Ms. Soni Sori is currently a member of Aam Aadmi Party. Branded as a “Maoist
conduit by the Chhattishgarh police she has been fighting for the rights of
poor tribals or Adivasis of Chhattisgarh against police atrocities. Ms. Soni Sori was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh
Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists. During her
imprisonment, she was allegedly tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh
state police. By April 2013, the Courts had acquitted her in six of the eight
cases filed against her due to lack of evidence. Ms. Soni Sori was brutally
tortured by police in Chhattisgarh for her alleged links with Maoists. After
her release from Jail on Bail in 2014, she joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in
her desperate bid to change the system. Since her return Ms. Soni has challenged
the unjustified police actions in Chhattisgarh state that has been engulfed in
violence and conflict, with tribal civilians caught in the crossfire between
Maoists and government security forces. Because of her work she has been
falsely implicated in many fabricated criminal cases by the police. She has
been subjected to harassment and intimidation and even faces the threat of
being eliminated.
The Perpetrators: Threat issued by Mr. SRP Kalluri, Inspector General of Police, Bastar region, Chhattisgarh Police
Date of Incident:
1st August 2015.
Place of Incident:
Geedam town, Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh
Incident detail:
According to sources following the
29th July fake encounter killing of Hemla Podiya, a tribal villager of Nahadi
village in Dantewada, Ms. Soni Sori held a a
press conference in the Jagdalpur press club on 31st July 2015 along with two
young girls from Nahadi village, Hemla Hira and Hemla Bhime. The village girls
narrated the whole incident leading to the killing of Podiya. On 30 July, Soni
Sori along with Lingaram Kodopi, Bela Bhatia visited the incident site, met
with the villagers there and uncovered that it was not an encounter between the
police and Naxalites at all, but a cold-blooded murder of an unarmed villager
in broad daylight in front of his house.
According to sources, on the night
of 28th July 2015, a contingent of joint security forces comprising of more
than 500 officers, went on a combing operation towards Nahadi village in
Dantewada. Upon reaching Nahadi, the forces rounded up the entire village and
started going from house to house beating everyone they found there, including
pregnant women. After hearing this commotion, Hemla Podiya emerged from his
house to see what was happening. He was only 100 feet from his hut when a
single shot rang out and he was killed.
When the family of Podiya and other
villagers heard a gunshot they all came rushing to the spot. But the security
forces didn’t allow anyone to come near the body and hurriedly took it away
instead. Podiya’s mother and wife were beaten up, and the sister was threatened
that she would be put in the hut and burnt. All traces of the killing were
removed, as the blood-soaked mud from the spot where Hemla Podiya had fallen
was dug up by the police and disposed of by throwing it away into a nearby
stream. Hemla Podiya was a young man; he lived with his parents, young sister,
wife and two young kids. His brother, the villagers claim, was also killed
earlier by the police in a similar encounter.
The villagers confirmed that there
was no encounter, no heavy firing – only a single shot was fired which killed
an unarmed villager in an act of unprovoked assault. It was cold blooded
murder. Podiya was shot from the back and at a short distance. This did not
take place in a dense forested patch, but in the open ground of the village.
Eighteen dangerous Naxalites were not arrested – only some young people
belonging to a cultural group were detained, and they too were let off within a
day. They were released only after stern warnings not to protest the killing of
Hemla Podiya in any manner, else they would be re-arrested.
In the meantime, a trader was
stabbed in a market of Geedam. Geedam is a small trading/ commercial center in
Dantewada. Police team including IG SRP Kalluri, the current Inspector General
of Bastar Range visited Gadeem where Mr. Kalluri
met the trading community which was naturally anguished at the lack of security
due to which one of their members was killed in broad daylight. In a
conversation with them, the IG blamed Ms. Soni
Sori for these attacks on them, and said that unless they all decide to
excommunicate Ms. Soni Sori and her
associates, these attacks against them will continue. He further alleged that Ms. Soni Sori was in fact supplying names of
traders to be killed to the Maoists, who were carrying out these attacks.
Appeal
:We, therefore urge you to immediately take necessary steps to ensure that the Superintendent of Police and the District Collector and District Magistrate of Dantewada District:
·
Order an immediate, thorough,
transparent, effective and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned
incident of threat issued to Ms. Soni Sori;
·
·
Take immediate action on the perpetrators,
in this case Inspector General of Police, Bastar
region for issuing a threat to her and using all provisions of law to
ensure that the defender is not harassed in future;
·
Along with local district officials
guarantees in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Ms.
Sori and her family members as they continue to be under risk of further
harassment from the perpetrators and give this assurance to the NHRC of India
in writing immediately and urgently, especially because the growing trend of
arbitrary and unwarranted restrictions on the basic freedoms supplemented with
the impunity of the security forces threatens the very foundations of
democracy;
·
Put an end to all acts of attack and
harassment against all human rights defenders like Ms.
Soni Sori in the State of Chhattisgarh to ensure that in all
circumstances they carry out their activities as defenders of human rights
without any hindrances;
·
Takes steps to conform to the
provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the
General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially:
o Article
1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association
with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human
rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels;
o Article
12.2, which provides that “"the State shall take all necessary measures to
ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually
and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de
facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action
as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in
the present Declaration”;
·
Recommend urgently and speedily
during the pendency of this complaint, the SHRC in Chhattisgarh to also take
necessary steps to establish a state focal point for HRDs in order to ensure
that HRDs have a new protection mechanism in their own state;
·
Recommend urgently and speedily
during the pendency of this complaint, the SHRC in Chhattisgarh to convene a
meetings of all state human rights institutions in the state [women,
minorities, right to information, disability, children etc] to ensure that a
co-ordinated strategy is developed within the State of Chhattisgarh for the
protection of the rights of human rights defenders;
·
Recommend urgently and speedily
during the pendency of this complaint, the State Government of Chhattisgarh in
collaboration with the NHRC Focal Point on HRDs and the SHRC Chhattisgarh to
provide sensitization training to law enforcement and security forces on the
role and activities of human rights defenders as a matter of priority, with
technical advice and assistance from relevant United Nations entities, NGOs and
other partners;
·
Recommend urgently and speedily
during the pendency of this complaint, the State Government of Chhattisgarh in
collaboration with the SHRC, Chhattisgarh to publicly acknowledge the
importance and legitimacy of the work of human rights defenders, i.e. anyone
who, “individually and in association with others, ... promote[s] and ...
strive[s] for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental
freedoms at the national and international levels” (Art.1 of the Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders);
·
More generally, ensures in all
circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in
accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with
international human rights instruments ratified by India is strictly adhered to in the
state of Chhattisgarh.
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