Summon top cops of Gujarat: rights group to Godhra panel

Monday, August 21st, 2006

Ahmedabad - A human rights group here has requested the Godhra probe panel to summon senior police officials of Gujarat for being inactive during the 2002 sectarian violence.

The Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) petitioned the panel of retired judges G.T. Nanavati and K.G. Shah to summon seven top cops for cross-examination.

The JSM contended that certain police officers ‘who were on duty on Feb 28, 2002 in the Sector-2 of Ahmedabad Police Commissionerate area, were deliberately inactive, thus giving a free hand to the perpetrators of the riots’.

The probe panel was petitioned to summon the officers with new reference.

The Nanavati commission was been set up to look into the communal violence that claimed at least 1000 lives across the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, Monday objected to the analysis of the compact discs (CDs) containing records of mobile calls made by some leaders during the violence.

The opposition from the BJP has come after the commission accepted a petition from the JSM to get the CDs analysed.

The panel had Aug 1 asked the government to suggest an appropriate agency for an analysis of the data.

Raising the doubts on the credibility of the CDs in its petition, the BJP argued: ‘The CDs are not obtained from competent authority and therefore the correctness of details of said CDs are doubtful.’

Questioning the authenticity of the creator of the CDs and the purpose to bring them out, BJP alleged ‘breach of privacy’ on part of police official Rahul Sharma, who submitted them to the commission.

In India two students vanish after being taken into police custody

Where Are Malesh and Manohar?

Vishav Bharti, Ohmynews.com,2006-08-19

The disappearance of two young men after being taken into police custody in India -- twice -- has their parents up in arms. They have met with the government, and the police. But no one seems to be listening.

The state of Andhra Pradesh is a traditional base for the Maoist movement. Last year, during peace talks between the Maoists and the government, the Maoists gunned down Narsi Reddy, a member of the legislative assembly. In response to Narsi Reddy's murder, the police registered a case against two college teachers and four students.

Malesh Bandari and Manohar Vadera, two of the students wanted by the police, are from the city of Mehboob Nagar. Both attended a prestigious institute in the region, Malesh for physics, Manohar for science.

Their parents, frightened of the police in Andhra Pradesh, accompanied their sons when they went to see the superintendent of police, Shirinivasan Reddy. The superintendent promised them that both boys would be released soon, after the investigation.

When a week had gone by, and the police had neither released the boys nor produced them in court, the parents became worried. They filed a writ in court. Acting on the writ, the judge ordered the police to produce the boys. Eight days after being jailed, the boys were finally produced in court for the trial. One could easily assess the "treatment" they had received while in police custody. They could hardly walk.

During the trial, the court sent both of them to jail. Months later, on March 5, they were finally granted bail.

Police officials, angry that the boys had been bailed out, allegedly threatened the parents, saying that the boys would be killed if they were released. Braving the threats, the parents deposited a guarantee to get the boys out of jail.

Later, in a pamphlet distributed at a conference in Delhi, the parents said that although an auto rickshaw had been hired to bring the boys home from jail, they never made it. It is alleged that the police stopped it and dragged Malesh and Manohar into a jeep.

"After that they were never seen," the pamphlet said.

When the parents met with high police officials to protest the re-arrest, the officials denied having any information about their whereabouts.

"We don't know anything after their release from jail. They might have joined the Maoists," said one official.

On April 18, however, the Maoists issued a public statement in which they denied that Malesh and Manohar had joined them.

Although frustrated, the parents have refused to leave any stone unturned. They have met with members of the legislative assembly, leaders of political parties, and high officials in the home ministry. The case has even made its way into the state legislative assembly of Andhra Pradesh. But to no avail.

When a member of the Indian Parliament, Vithal Rao, talked to Superintendent of police Reddy about the re-arrest, the superintendent assured him that the boys would be released within two or three days -- contrary to what the police had been claiming all along, that the boys were released a couple of months ago. But the boys have not turned up.

"The state police have swallowed our children in front of our eyes, like a hawk grabs the chicks. A hen is better than we are as she struggles to protect her chicks under her feathers. We could not even do that as the police stuffed the barrels of guns in our mouths," the parents wrote in an open letter.

"If they have killed our children, and can't return them alive," they said, "at least return their corpses."

©2006 OhmyNews

Kashmiri photographer in prison without evidence or trial for nearly two years

9 Aug, 2006

Reporters Without Borders today denounced India’s security services for their persecution of photojournalist Muhammad Maqbool Khokar (better known as Maqbool Sahil), who has been imprisoned since 18 September 2004 under an emergency security law, and called for the country’s journalists to campaign to free him. Requests by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the National Human Rights Commission for his release have been ignored.

"The rule of law does not seem to be applied equally in India," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "It is urgent for the authorities in Srinagar and New Delhi to order the security forces to release the journalist, who is the victim of a shameful denial of justice."

The High Court in vain urged the authorities on 8 August 2006, for the second time, to drop charges against him. His friends also fear that if he is released, he would quickly be rearrested.

Sahil, who works for the daily paper Chattan, was arrested by Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) agents in Srinagar, who accused him during interrogation, notably by officer Ashkhoor Wani, of having secret documents and spying for Pakistan by passing on photos of events in Kashmir in recent years.

He was first detained under the Official Secrets Act but has been held since 20 October 2004 under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The Jammu and Kashmir High Court ordered his release on 27 October 2005 but the security services refused to obey. His imprisonment was extended on 9 January 2006 for another two years under the PSA.

Sahil wrote to Reporters Without Borders that he was physically and mentally tortured at the Srinagar interrogation centre in the two weeks after his arrest and had not been allowed to sleep or eat for several days.

The National Human Rights Commission, urged by Reporters Without Borders, recently asked the Jammu and Kashmir police chief why Sahil’s imprisonment was being prolonged, but three weeks after the legal deadline there has been no reply. The journalist’s lawyer has several times pointed to the total lack of evidence in the case-file put together by the security forces.

Sahil, 36, is in prison at Kotbalwal, near Jammu, more than 300 km from his home. His mother, handicapped brother and his five young children have lived in poverty since his arrest.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18522